Masisi expresses confidence in SEZA
President Mokgweetsi Masisi has identified the Special Economic Zones Authority ( SEZA) as a key corporate that will be instrumental in driving Botswana towards high income economic status.
Botswana, a mining rich economy, is working towards attaining a high- income status by 2036, a year which also coincide with National Vision 2036. When delivering the keynote address at the 16th biennial National Business Conference ( NBC) this week, Masisi said SEZA can enable Botswana to exploit opportunities offered by the African Continental Free Trade Area ( AfCFTA), by producing high quality goods that can be exported into Africa’s 1.3 billion strong market.
AfCFTA is a free trade area encompassing most of Africa; It was established in 2018 by the African Continental Free Trade Agreement, which has 43 parties and another 11 signatories, making it the largest free- trade area by number of member states, after the World Trade Organization, and the largest in population and geographic size. The President added that Botswana has invested in the development of SEZs, targeting particular sectors of the economy such as manufacturing, health and other services.
“This includes the diversification of the diamond industry where we believe that as the world’s largest diamond producer by value, we should be Africa’s diamond jewellery manufacturing hub,” he told attendants at the two- day forum. SEZA was established in 2015 and mandated to establish, develop and manage Special Economic Zones. SEZs are designated geographical areas that are governed by special administrative, regulatory and fiscal regimes which are different from those applicable in the rest of the domestic economy. SEZs are meant to overcome barriers to investment, enhance Foreign Direct Investment ( FDI) inflow, increase exports and improve country brand competitiveness.
SEZA Chief Executive Officer, Lonely Mogara has previously explained that the Authority is different from other investment attraction agencies in that it only attracts high value projects that have potential to generate export revenue and create large scale employment. “SEZA also targets businesses that have a fairy high business replication index and are able to bring along their eco- system of suppliers and service providers to ensure greater value addition for the country,” said Mogara who was appointed to head the Authority
in April 2020.
In setting up SEZA, government was taking a leaf from leading economies like Singapore, Malaysia, South Korea, Mauritius and China; all of which had employed a combination of favourable policies and special financial, investment and trade privileges in their SEZs to garner unprecedented rates of economic growth.
President Masisi further explained that the implementation of the cluster development initiative will enable economic diversification and local economic development. Botswana is currently implementing four cluster strategies that include beef, small stock, tourism and financial and knowledge intensive services.
“We remain committed to accelerating the attainment of our national priorities of economic growth, economic diversification and job creation,” said President Masisi.
SEZA has zoned Tsabong and Ghanzi livestock clusters that will feed into the Lobatse meat and leather SEZ. Targeted economic activities at the zone will include canning, food processing, manufacturing of leather products as well as dairy production.
SEZA is working closely with the Ministry of Agriculture to ensure that support programs like LIMID and ISPAAD are fully utilised to increase output in Ghanzi and Tsabong to support the Lobatse meat and leather city. There is huge potential for Botswana to export small stock meat to lucrative markets in the middle East. Botswana is currently constructing a P161 million multi species abattoir in Tsabong, as part of efforts aimed at improving the national small stock herd and exploiting existing markets outside Botswana.