- Youth-owned company beat 243 others
- Expands its animal feed and charcoal briquette plant
- Alosa is sole producer of pig feed in northern Botswana
- P500K grant comes with mentorship programme
A youth-owned animal feed production company recently beat 243 others to win a grant of P500 000 in a business development competition run by Botswana Development Corporation (BDC).
BDC subsequently launched Alosa Group of Companies and unveiled its success in the competition at the company’s premises on 25 August 2022.
The Alosa Group comprises Alosa Feeds and Alosa Biomass-Charcoal Briquettes and is managed by Samuel Ntshiwa in partnership with Tshegofatso Ntshiwa.
The animal feed manufacturing and charcoal briquette group is a 100 percent citizen youth-owned business that recently commenced operations at a plant measuring approximately 1,400sqm at Dumela Industrial Estate in Francistown.
After beating off competition from 243 other entrants, Alosa Group was declared winners of the first-ever BDC Business Den and was awarded P500 000 funding on a grant basis accompanied by mentorship opportunities.
BDC launched its inaugural entrepreneurship development programme called The Business Den in 2020. This programme aims to reach out to budding, ambitious, and self-driven youth entrepreneurs, to allow them to secure grant funding with mentorship and networking opportunities.
The competition was opened to young citizen entrepreneurs between the ages of 18 and 35 years with ideas for either a new or existing business seeking expansion opportunities.
Said the Managing Director of BDC, Cross Kgosidiile: “We are pleased to have launched this initiative as Botswana’s main investment arm with a mandate to fund commercially viable projects. This will assist our young entrepreneurs in their desire to take their business concepts to the next level.
“The competition was open to businesses across all sectors to align with our mandate of investing in commercially-viable projects in all sectors of the economy. We have confidence in the results that will be delivered by this project as it will fulfil the sustainable development goals for Botswana and reduce the national import bill to become self-sufficient in the production of animal feeds.
“Our wish is for this country to transform from being largely an importing and consuming country to being a producer and an exporting country.”
Kgosidiile added that BDC remains fully committed to fundamentally contributing to the development of a viable, competitive and profitable manufacturing industry. Through the Alosa Group of Companies, BDC will fulfill its mandate of promoting citizen and youth economic empowerment, creating sustainable economic diversification, and creating jobs for Batswana.
Alosa Feeds commenced production in February 2022 with an initial production of mixed fowl in 10kg and 50 kg bags. The company commenced operations by retailing other brand products, including chicken feeds such as 50kg broiler growers and starter feed sourced from Irvine’s Botswana.
This was done to leverage existing brands that the market is familiar with. Alosa has other products/stock feeds such as lucerne, maize bran and supplements (salt, protein, phosphate, tick and fly blocks).
In June 2022, the company commenced production of pig feed which will be retailed in 50kg bags. There is a high demand for pig feed in the north of Botswana and Alosa, which is the only company that produces it there, is confident that it will meet the demand.
