Consumer Fair a big break for SMMEs
The Botswana Consumer Fair is a vital platform for growing the business environment and further developing the private sector. According to Business Botswana President, Gobuamang Keebine, the Fair, which started on Monday this week and ends on September 4, will accord Small, Medium, and Micro Enterprises ( SMMEs), and even larger corporations the necessary access to the market, and opportunity to sell their brands, while learning from those around them.
“Over the past two years, our economy has suffered greatly, and everyone from micro- businesses to large entities felt the impact,” he said during his address at the official opening of the Fair.
Keebine said that the Consumer Fair comes at the right time as Botswana tries to rebuild the economy and tackle the rising inflation.
“This week will contribute greatly to strengthening domestic ties and fostering networks both locally and globally.”
Keebine who leads the local business community said Business Botswana has been the main voice and been at the forefront of the private sector in Botswana.
It serves as a unified voice of businesses striving to enhance the business environment and build the vitality and competitiveness of the private sector in Botswana.
He is proud that Botswana is one of Africa’s success stories, which has used its thriving diamond business to fight poverty and give its people some of the continent’s highest standards of living.
In 2019, Botswana was ranked 87th out of 190 economies on the ease of doing business, according to the World Bank annual ratings. This rating, although a slight decline from 2018, demonstrates Botswana’s openness to doing business as an economy.
He said to reduce the country’s high dependence on the mineral sector, economic diversification has been a key strategy and initiative to tackle issues like; export growth, poverty, inequality, exclusion, local economic and SMME development as well as regulatory and business environment improvement.
He pledged Business Botswana’s support to the development and growth of the business environment through initiatives like the Consumer Fair which gives exhibitors a platform to actively promote their business while networking with others.
“The Fair presents a major opportunity for business branding, creation of new product visibility, and promotion of existing products,” he said.
This is the15th Edition of the Botswana Consumer Fair. There are over 500 Exhibitors and 29 different sector categories of the economy.
Exhibitors are local, regional, and international representing many countries such as Ethiopia, South Africa, Ghana, Eswatini, Egypt, Kenya, Nigeria, Lesotho, Japan, and India.
Keebine said the new feature of the Consumer Fair, the Trader’s Hub, was developed to highlight the Fair’s major objectives, which are to stimulate trade and exchange of products produced and manufactured in Botswana’s major value chains.
Some of the value chains which were considered for participation included Arts and crafts, Horticulture produces, Food processing, apparel, Furniture, Jewellery, Leather, and leather products, IT and electronic equipment, as well as Beef and beef products - all of which are sectors that Business Botswana has identified as viable to drive the economy of Botswana.
“The Botswana Consumer Fair is a business person’s paradise. It is strategically designed to help exhibitors and guests thrive by stimulating trade and exchange that will be the beginning of business development, and eventually an economically diverse and independent nation,” Keebine said.