- High-value investors of up to $20m to be sought
- SEZA to ensure that all its operations are ESG compliant
Ongoing developments at Botswana’s Special Economic Zones are aligned with key national priorities and are primarily aimed at boosting citizen economic participation.
Lonely Mogara, the CEO of Special Economic Zones Authority (SEZA), revealed in an interview that SEZA is looking to attract high-value investors who put up an initial investment of up to $20 million.
“The aim is to turn Botswana into a high-income economy through fast-tracked growth, diversification, job creation and technology transfer,” he said. “To achieve that, we must attract high-value investors who can immediately boost our exports through their established global networks.”
Vision 2036
He added that SEZA has aligned its mandate with key national strategies such as Vision 2036, the Reset Agenda and the Transitional National Development Plan (TNDP) to ensure that investments at its SEZs benefit the youth, women and others at the bottom rung of the economic ladder.
SEZA will also build an ecosystem of local entrepreneurs around its SEZs to facilitate value addition, skills transfer, as well as backward and forward linkages through the provision of services such as IT, security, catering, entertainment, construction and transport.
The development of key meat clusters in Kgalagadi and Ghanzi will also facilitate increased production to satisfy demand from the Lobatse SEZ, which has been themed as a Meat & Leather City at which key economic activities will include leather production, meat processing and dairy production.
One-stop service centre
Production at the Mosisedi cluster will be ramped up through the development of a service centre, grain storage silos as well as a one-stop service centre. “There are also opportunities for Mosisedi farmers to produce fodder for the Lobatse SEZ,” Mogara said. “Investment will also bring in new technologies, skills, infrastructure, processing and jobs for the area.”
Further, along the value chain will exist opportunities for manufacturing pesticides, fertilisers, animal feed, mealie meal and others. Cognisant of the fact that investors are increasingly applying non-financial factors in their analysis of potential investment markets, SEZA has resolved to ensure that all its operations are Environment, Social and Governance (ESG) compliant.
