Self- sufficiency key to Botswana’s survival

Botswana will surely emerge from the Coronavirus battered than never before, both economically and socially. Already a number of projects have been shelved due to limited funds from state coffers. The domestic economy is also less likely to grow beyond the previous year due to a surge in COVID- 19 cases.

It is now up to the leadership of the country to ensure that the country’s socio- economic landscape and policies are revised or fine- tuned to ensure they withstand adverse impact of future pandemics. The COVID- 19 pandemic provides a perfect opportunity for the country to have a relook at its economic and social policies which will ensure Botswana depends largely on local economy to remain almost independent in most consumables and commodities.

As we write this commentary, a number of essential supplies take a long time to arrive in the country due to restrictions on movements, especially from our major trading partners, both regional and internationally. This has dearly affected our domestic economy and well- being as a country.

This week, government announced that the importation of fuel from South Africa has been cut. We are crossing our fingers that the situation gets better before it gets any worse as it was the case last year. As things stand,

Botswana should not be burdened by shortage of fuel or petroleum products especially given the fact that, the country has coal in abundance which could be turned into liquids.

The country has long sat on the Botswana Oil Limited coal to liquids projects under the pretext that there is shortage of funds to kickstart the project. This project has all that it takes to end Botswana’s petroleum or fuel woes. Government will also need to hurry up all policies or initiatives that are geared towards ensuring the country is self- sufficient in food production.

Furthermore, as South Africa tightens regulations regarding movements of goods/ people as a result of COVID- 19, there will be some shortfall on the supply of certain goods into Botswana. In the same spirit that President Mokgweetsi Masisi is pushing the livestock initiative, government should also push forward self - sufficiency on food production.

At 55 years, the country can no longer allow itself to depend on other countries for food products. Government institutions which are responsible for funding citizens such as Citizen Entrepreneurial Development Agency ( CEDA) and National Development Bank ( NDB) need to pull up their socks as capital has always been a major challenge although people have land. We welcome CEDA’s revised lending rule, but we are still concerned about their loan book towards the agricultural sector. NDB, which should be at the centre of all this, has unfortunately lagged behind, due in part to lack of funding on high default rates. The mixed land use initiative is also expected to help push agricultural production forward.

As the 2021/ 22 budget speech approaches, we can only wish the finance minister will talk more on how they have increased funding towards initiatives that are aimed at pushing agricultural produce, which is sustainable unlike mining. Unless Botswana becomes self - sufficient in most things, it will still be affected by more pandemics that are on our way.