Africa-Press – Botswana. A total of 1159 applicants have successfully registered for Chema Chema Fund in Chobe District: 61 per cent women and 39 per cent men.
Local Enterprise Authority (LEA)’s Kasane Branch Manager, Mr Tannyboy Matebesi, said in an interview that out of the registered applications 658 underwent LEA training on business management, business ethics, stock and records keeping, product quality and market research.
Mr Matebesi said most applicants were under catering, bales clothing, tuckshop, manufacturing, travel agency startups, tourism related proposals from already existing businesses to boost their operations.
He said their office had addressed kgotla meetings to educate and raise awareness about the fund from Pandamatenga to Parakarungu where residents of villages beyond Chobe National Park expressed that the park operating hours were rendering access to LEA offices in Kasane a challenge.
To address this, he said, LEA deployed an officer in Kavimba this month to assist applications in Chobe Enclave adding that the officer was this week alternating between Parakarungu, Satau and Kachikau.
Mr Matebesi said they experienced high volumes of applications in their online system at the beginning which caused delays for processing hence people resorting to hand deliver applications.
He said LEA worked closely with the Department of Civil and National Registration and BURS to verify whether an applicant was employed and determine their tax bracket and if their Omang was valid because the Chema Chema Fund captured applicants through their Omang.
He thanked the departments of Tribal Administration, Immigration, BURS, CEDA and others for their contributions in issuing exemption letters and confirmations to applications so as to expedite the application process.
He said they observed that some people, especially the elderly, did not receive messages of application approval because their mail box were full while others went for days without switching on their phones.
Mr Matebesi explained that LEA required applicants to submit three quotations from suppliers so as to guard against fraud and ensure there was fair competition in the market.
He explained that they conducted thorough assessments on every proposal hence applicants in same industry may be funded differently depending on their operations, scale of production and history of business.
Mr Matebesi said LEA would continue to conduct inspections and train funded businesses in future so that these informal businesses were prosperous and graduated to formal businesses.
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