Architects Association keen to overcome financial hurdles

The President of the Architects Association of Botswana (AAB), Moemedi Gabana, says there is an urgent need to remedy the organisation’s poor financial state, a situation that stems from the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Speaking at AAB’s annual conference last week, he revealed that the organisation has not been able to recover from the financial impact of the pandemic, as the challenges faced by members have in turn affected the organisation.

“The recent 2021-2022 financial year was tough for the organisation, with most of the members failing to pay their annual subscriptions in time, delaying the progress of the organisation,” Gabana said.

Providing a financial overview of the architecture market, Gabana revealed that the majority of architectural firms that survived the menace of COVID-19 were those with operations outside the country.

He said this while encouraging members to diversify the portfolio of their projects to other countries to ensure stability in the cash flows.

“As a collective, we have to extend our operations to outside markets and have the confidence to extend our skills to different regions of the world,” the president added.

He revealed that AAB has begun initial steps for a strategic shift of direction geared for the middle quarter of 2023. He said the association’s executive plans to set up business clinics across the country that will aid those in the architecture space as well as provide financial advice and money management skills to support industry players.

Delivering AAB’s 2022 financial report, AAB vice president Ngwabi Mannathoko highlighted that prudent cost management measures had enabled the organisation to maintain their expenses at reasonable levels, in order to keep it afloat.

“Our administration expenses in the past financial year have remained relatively low compared to the 2020-2021 financial year,” he said, delivering the report on behalf of the treasurer.

“This is due to the fact that we have managed to cut down expenditure on events.”

Mannathoko further stressed that there was a need to diversify asset holdings from just being cash. He described the need to diversify as one requiring urgent attention and proposed the investment of at least 40% of assets held as cash to asset managers like African Alliance and

Bifm.