Brand Botswana exists to bring together Batswana around a common identity and a set of values that stimulate stronger communities, culture and heritage. Moagi, explains that the brand’s motivation is to instill a sense of pride and community engagement and position Botswana favourably on the global stage. By highlighting the country’s appeal as an attractive destination for visiting, working, and investing, Brand Botswana seeks to elevate the nation’s profile internationally.
Moagi states that the objectives of Brand Botswana include highlighting the country’s national assets, positioning and differentiating Botswana from its African neighbours, growing its trade performance, stimulating international investment as well as accelerating innovation and new industry development. Brand Botswana also aims to enhance the country’s attractiveness to tourists.
Moagi explains further that the #PushaBW campaign exists to promote domestic investments and locally produced products.
According to Moagi, #PushaBW is a rallying call for all Batswana to play their part in supporting and buying Botswana.
Colloquially, he adds that when they say Pusha they mean, support, encourage, or drive forward.
“So #PushaBW is asking Batswana to support local, it is a reminder to encourage local production and confirms that we are all driving the country forward. All Batswana are encouraged to use #PushaBW whenever showcasing anything local, in our discussions and initiatives if it’s local, it deserves #PushaBW,” she explains.
“Ultimately, the responsibility lies with all Batswana—consumers, businesses, and government entities—to consciously choose products made and grown in Botswana. By doing so, we contribute to the growth and development of our country.”
Moagi further notes that increased appreciation and use of local products stimulates domestic investment. As demand for locally made goods rises, production will expand, leading to the development of new industries. This growth, in turn, calls for more domestic investment to support and scale production across the country.
The #PushaBW campaign was launched in 2018 as a national initiative that is aimed at encouraging Batswana to actively grow the local economy by supporting and buying locally-made products, supporting local initiatives and using local services.
Statistics on import bill worry Moagi.
“In 2016, our national import bill was sitting at P64 billion and in 2017 it reduced to P 54.42 billion. This reduction is welcome but it also shows room to not only produce more products but to also buy the products made locally,” she reveals.
She notes a direct correlation between consumer purchasing behavior and key areas such as employment creation, local economic development and prosperity.
She states that buying local products keeps families and friends employed, creates future employment and grows the economy.
Moagi identifies stakeholder engagements as one of the key milestones achieved by Brand Botswana in promoting local brands and domestic investment.
She explains that the #PushaBW campaign is driven by stakeholder support and BITC has engaged widely to ensure that there is buy-in for the campaign and its objectives.
She says there has been a marked appreciation of the campaign and most establishments have embraced the campaign and have aligned.
She also mentions In-Store Branding.
“BITC has collaborated with some retailers, amongst them Fours Cash and Carry, Woolworths, Square Mart and Clicks to brand spaces where local products are listed, to make customers/shoppers aware of local products availability in the stores.”
Further, Brand Botswana also engages in retailer engagements. Moagi explains that as part of the campaign, BITC continues to engage retailers to avail more shelf space for local products. This has resulted in more shelf space for local products, ensuring that more local products are listed in mainstream big retail outlets.
BITC has also launched campaigns to actively profile and promote local products and services, highlighting the stories behind them. These efforts have been carried out through various channels, including mainstream media, social media, #PushaBW marketplaces, and product showcases.
As part of the domestic investment drive, BITC has also profiled the districts around the country showcasing opportunities in the different districts that are available for investment, this is an ongoing exercise and with increased market penetration of local products, there has been increased interest in setting up industries in some parts of the country.
Brand Botswana annually hosts the #PushaBW Forum at the annual Global Expo Botswana. Through the Forum, Brand Botswana creates a platform where local stakeholders interact to discuss different issues.
In the past, Moagi said stakeholder interactions have discussed consumer behavior around local goods and services, what is required to get the population to procure more local, the role of different stakeholders in the buy local initiative, the local quality standards and how producers can increase product quality for consumer uptake, the branding and packaging standards required to be on local shelves as well as what can be done to stimulate interest in local products and services.
Their quest to promote local product uptake seems to be bearing fruit according to Moagi. She says during the financial year 2023/24, the BITC set for itself a domestic investment target of P1.910 billion and achieved P3.581 billion of total domestic investment, surpassing the set target, led by the aggressive push for local product uptake.
The aggressive push for local products is embedded in BITC’s five–year corporate strategy that focuses on attracting FDI, facilitating domestic investment, promoting Botswana through national branding, and developing and promoting the country’s exports. The strategy is named Go-To-Market Strategy.
“The greatest contributor to the expansion and domestic investment was mining services sector, followed by manufacturing and agri-business,” She reveals.
Local companies according to Moagi continued to expand their operations into either new products or increased their levels of production and thus reinvesting within the country during the financial year.
In total, 155 companies contributed to Domestic investment in the 2023/24 financial year, mainly in the services sector, manufacturing and agri-business.
“We have previously announced that we are now going to deliberately keep our focus mainly on domestic investment and we are happy that for the first time we see such an excellent performance in domestic investment and expansion.”
BITC’s performance is also measured on total export value, which is basically the value derived from the goods that are sold in foreign markets. The target for this was P4.5 billion, with the actual achievement being P6.044 billion which is significantly higher than the set target.
