Enough of silos mindset and need for a linked- up SMMEs ecosystem in Botswana
Business development support needed for SMMEs
Botswana has 14 Years left to become a High- Income economy, yet underlying problems have emerged, including but not limited to the following: lack of innovation among most local SMMEs, lack of entrepreneurial capital and growth driven mindset among founding owners of small businesses. Despite considerable government effort over the years to promote SMMEs, it has yielded little in terms of economywide export diversification. SMME sector continuous to suffer neglect relative to other industries’ sectors thus foregrounding the need for business development support.
The just ended LEA Entrepreneurship and SMMEs symposium, held at Boipuso Hall in Gaborone on the 28 and 29th of November heralded the theme: entrepreneurship development, a catalyst for the National Reset Agenda. The platform showcased its effectiveness to Batswana at various levels such as learning, behavior and reacting to topical issues seized with the new Ministry of Entrepreneurship ( MoE). As much as it proved to be a useful platform for professional development of entrepreneurs, academics, government agencies and SMMEs founding owners, the platform also brought into the spotlight waning gaps underlying the local entrepreneurship and small, medium to micro enterprises ( SMMEs) ecosystem.
Quantum leap to escape the middle income trap
In the backdrop of numerous underlying problems, the LEA Entrepreneurship and SMMEs symposium delivered at all levels except that of implementation, monitoring and evaluation of results of several entrepreneurial supports which have been promulgated by government since the early 1970s. There is a need for a quantum leap to escape the country’s ‘ middle income’ trap which is now sitting on the neck of the local entrepreneurship and Small, Medium to Micro enterprises ( SMMEs) ecosystem like an albatross.
Key takeaways from the Entrepreneurship and SMMEs symposium
Key take aways from the Entrepreneurship and SMMEs symposium emerged from some key points of the speeches delivered by Minister of Entrepreneurship, Karabo Gare and the Permanent Secretary to the Ministry of Entrepreneurship, Joel Ramaphoi. Some good policy moves are as follows: • Botswana entrepreneurship and SMMEs ecosystem needs to be synergized from traditional silos approach. To this end, the newly established Ministry of Entrepreneurship ( MoE) has developed a five pillar roadmap to address the existential challenges facing entrepreneurship in the country. These can be summarized as an integrated policy framework, skills, financing, government regulation and legislation and finally but not least, communication ( which will serve to translate value chains into Setswana).
• Theory of change and strategic direction will be implemented in the form of a three wave action plan comprising of elements such as startups, growth and sustainability. • Entrepreneurship and SMMEs in Botswana create jobs, develop leadership and innovations.
• SMMEs are vehicles to enterprise development and an outcome of entrepreneurship.
The intertwined nature of challenges, opportunities and the impact of business development services or entrepreneurial supports on SMMEs is astonishingly understudied. Therefore, I conducted a research on the impact of business support services in creating growth for the agribusiness SMMEs in Botswana. The significance of business development services or entrepreneurial supports to revitalize agribusiness SMMEs cannot be underestimated, as it remains useful to different constituents, including SMMEs themselves, policymakers, business development services providers, practitioners, academics and researchers.
My presentation at the just ended LEA Entrepreneurship and SMMEs symposium delivered a comprehensive understanding of business development services or entrepreneurial supports ( BDS) in creating growth of agribusiness SMMEs in Botswana by highlighting what has worked and partially filling gaps in earlier researches. Findings of my research are designed to assist policymakers, SMMEs owner founders, government agencies and associations in designing appropriate targeted interventions to increase and ease access to BDS. My study offers a new dataset with propositions to amplify contemporary literature as it bares research gaps compelling further investigations.
Research findings and results of this cross- sectional empirical study which used data drawn from a nationally representative sample of 300 owner/ managers of agribusiness SMMEs who benefited from agro business training services offered by Local Enterprise Authority ( LEA), revealed astonishing inferential data.
At the time of my study, LEA service offerings included incubation, prescreening, training and mentoring, and funding for SMMEs in Botswana. Empirical evidence of my research revealed the following amongst many others: • superior performance of BDS supported enterprises following training when compared to non- BDS supported enterprises.
• It disclosed that the BDS supported enterprises realised tremendous growth, specifically the Return on Equity increased by 42.3percent; • profitability from 30percent - 50per
cent;
• sales revenue by 33.6percent; • Return on Assets by 44.5percent. • 63percent of the respondents confirmed a positive impact of BDS policy in enhancing the development of the early- stage firms.
In conclusion, given the results enunciated above, higher percentages point to commendable success and growth of those enterprises who opt for entrepreneurial supports as opposed to shying away. Thus, my empirical results confirmed that BDS is a precursor for quicker growth of early- stage enterprises in Botswana. On this basis, it may be concluded that government should encourage the BDS firms to increase investment in assisting in the areas such as technical training and financing gaps experienced by SMMEs.