Botswana: African Development Bank supports economic diversification project through FAPA
An economic
diversification project supported by the Africa Development Bank was launched
in Botswana last month to strengthen the small stock, tourism and horticulture
industries by improving businesses linkages particularly among small- and
medium-sized enterprises (SMEs).
The Botswana
Economic Diversification Project was launched on 6 February, 2020 in the
capital Gaborone, with the aim of diversifying the southern African nation’s
economy, which is heavily dependent on minerals, especially diamond exports.
Assistant Minister
of Investment, Trade and Industry, Karabo Socraat Gare, underscored the need to
diversify the economy and to improve the business climate in Botswana.
He hailed the
African Development Bank for financing the project, which will, among other
things, support a review of the country’s Private Sector Development Strategy.
“It cannot be more
befitting that this programme is being funded by our own African Development
Bank,” he said at the launch.
George Honde, Bank
Lead Economist said that if successfully implemented, “support to the Botswana
Economic Diversification Project will unlock a number of projects that will
require both financial and technical support.”
He said the
African Development Bank stood ready to work with the Government of Botswana
and other private investors to provide support through both sovereign and
non-sovereign lending.
The Botswana
Economic Diversification Project is supported by the African Development Bank
through a $1 million Fund for African Private Sector Assistance (FAPA) grant to
be implemented over three years.
The project will
back up to 100 high-growth SMEs selected from the small stock and horticulture
sectors to enhance their production capacities, re-orient their business
strategies and access wider markets for their products.
The overall goal
of this technical assistance project is to assist Botswana’s government in its
efforts to diversify the economy through increased competitiveness of SMEs, the
engine of Africa’s economy. This will be achieved by supporting Business
Botswana, a business association, to implement activities under the Botswana
Private Sector Development Strategy (PSDS) which is the main framework for
support to private sector development in Botswana.
More than a 100
people attended the launch in the capital Gaborone, including government
officials, private sector leaders and development partners.
FAPA is a
multi-donor thematic trust fund that provides grant funding for technical
assistance and capacity building to support the implementation of the Bank’s
Private Sector Development Strategy. The Governments of Japan and Austria, and
the African Development Bank are active contributors to the fund, which to date
has provided over $67 million to 83 projects in over 38 countries across
Africa.
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