BITC pushes local products to retailers’ shelves

# PushaBW is driving a paradigm shift and creating employment - Olebile

Botswana Investment and Trade Centre ( BITC)’ s # PushaBw Small Medium and Micro Enterprises ( SMME) roadshow currently underway in designated areas around the country is expected to translate into tangible results with more local products making it to store shelves.

In the past, local producers and retailers have been at loggerheads regarding market access and uptake of local goods and services. Retailers and consumers alike often accused producers of providing substandard goods, failure to meet demand, as well as high pricing of their goods and services, among other things. Producers on the other hand, viewed retailers as preferring foreign goods over locally- produced products, while they offered no support to help them meet the required standards. In response, government’s investment agency, BITC, launched the # PushaBW initiative in 2018 to persuade Batswana and all residents to make conscious decisions to buy locally- produced goods and services.

The campaign also aimed at improving the production capacity of local producers, which directly contributes towards creation of more job opportunities and economic diversification. It was expected to eventually help reduce the import bill that currently stands at over P85 billion.

The roadshow that will reach areas including, Tsabong, Palapye, Selibe Phikwe, Francistown, Kasane, Maun, Ghanzi and Hukuntsi, is aimed at building capacity of local producers and service providers. It is a partnership between BITC, Citizen Entrepreneurial Development Agency ( CEDA), Local Enterprise Authority ( LEA) and retailers including Woolworths, Sefalana, Fours, Trans Africa, Choppies, Square Mart and Pick & Pay. The acting Minister of Investment, Trade and Industry, Mabuse Pule said during the start of the roadshow that the collaboration will effectively deal with challenges faced by local producers and service providers. Pule said that most retailers are not aware of what is readily available, while on the other hand, some local producers are not aware of the requirements and struggles to meet requirements for listing by the retailers. “These requirements include among others, meeting certain quality standards, consistent and continuous supply as well as competitive pricing,” Pule said. According to the Minister, in 2020, government put in place the Economic Recovery and Transformation Plan ( ERTP) as a response measure towards Covid- 19 effects on SMMEs. Through the ERTP government availed P950 million towards SME development. He appealed to local producers to strive for continuous improvement of their systems, processes, and improve quality of their products. “Aim for excellence. Your products must target international markets before they reach the local market,” he said, further encouraging producers to pay attention to product labelling, packaging and coding. He also urged retailers on the other hand to find ways to engage with local producers, and to come up with Supplier Development Programmes to enhance producers’ capacity, improve their reliability and further avail shelf space within their stores for local products. Some local manufacturers and producers have benefitted from some of these supplier development programmes. Managing Director of Arona Natural Foods, Fani Gwizi, said his company Arona, which manufactures and distributes Sunflower oil, is grateful that retailers like Woolworths have been able to handhold him until his product made it to their shelves. Currently, his products also enjoy shelf space in other retailers including Choppies and Pick & Pay. Today, Arona has 22 locally- produced products in Woolworths stores.

“It was not all easy to meet all the quality standards. It comes at a cost to be able to produce quality that stores like Woolworths would want to associate with,” Gwizi said, adding that local producers need to be patient and willing to go through the process. From Woolworths Botswana stores, Gorata Abotseng said it is important for local producers to understand that retailers would not want to just accept local produce without the necessary checks and balances. She said at Woolworths, they have committed to train and ensure that producers they work with are at par with their quality standards. “We want to know where and how you produce what you produce. We want to ensure that you as a producer adhere to food safety procedures for food products and that non- foods are also at par with international quality products,” she said.

Abotseng added however that they have development programmes that take local producers through baby steps, to handhold them and ensure that they meet their required standards. They have also appointed food technologists to assist local producers who desire to deal with Woolworths Botswana. Woolworths currently sells over 30 locally- produced products. The recent approval of the Economic Inclusion Law and the Public Procurement Law are envisaged to also play a role in empowering citizens and decentralise procurement for ease of doing business. BITC CEO, Keletsositse Olebile said after an ongoing three- year journey, they are seeing a steady increase in the uptake of local products. He added that # PushaBW is driving a paradigm shift towards the uptake of local products to create employment and grow the national economy.