CEEP: The bedrock of Debswana citizen economic empowerment drive
Debswana’s Citizen Economic Empowerment Programme ( CEEP) looks set to advance the country’s socio- economic growth, through the involvement of more citizen owned companies in their mining operations. Below, the Head of CEEP at Debswana, Wanatsha Moakufi, explains to KOOBONYE RAMOKOPELWA - the programme’s success, challenges and their progress on creating 20 000 jobs by end of the year.
BOTSWANA GUARDIAN: What are the primary objectives of Debswana’s Citizen Economic Empowerment Programme ( CEEP)?
WANATSHA MOAKUFI:
The primary strategic objective is to drive industry development and diversification through citizen entrepreneurship focusing on citizen inclusion within the company’s supply chain and exploitation of the mining value chain with a view to impact job creation in Botswana.
BG: How does the programme align with Debswana’s broader corporate social responsibility and business objectives?
MOAKUFI: The programme is part of Debswana’s Socio- Economic Development initiatives which aim to meaningfully impact the communities in our areas of operation. This is part of our wider corporate social responsibility dubbed ‘ building forever’.
‘ Building Forever’ among others, focusses on four pillars that are centred around leading ethical practices, partnering for thriving communities, protecting the natural world and accelerating equal opportunity.
BG: How does Debswana- which is key to Botswana’ s economic prosperitymeasure the success and impact of the CEEP?
MOAKUFI: In the current five- year strategy, our goal is to spend P20 billion with citizen- owned companies and impact 20, 000 jobs by 2024.
BG: Can you provide examples of specific projects or initiatives that have made a significant difference in empowering local citizens?
MOAKUFI: The programme has made impact across the entire Debswana mining operation value chain both in supply, services, and local manufacturing. The facilitation of access to funding of citizen companies with local financial institutions was instrumental to the foregoing mentioned success. The pledged facility stands at P4.7 billion with more than P1.4 billion already advanced. Examples of specific projects are:
• Textile Accelerator programme that has capacitated Small, Medium & Micro Enterprises ( SMMEs) tailored to locally produce PPE for the mines.
• Drilling programme: Facilitation of funding through local financial institutions for citizen entities to procure drilling equipment to service the mine, with more than 80 percent of drilling works done by citizens.
• Crushing programme: Facilitation of funding through local financial institutions for citizen entities to procure crushing equipment to service the mine, with more than 100 percent of crushing works done by citizens.
•Repair sand maintenance: Commitment to awarding repairs and maintenance services works to citizen companies and
• Fuel Supply: Localisation of fuel supply to Debswana operations through Botswana Oil Limited ( BOL) that has led to use of 100 percent citizen transporters to transport fuel for Debswana.
BG: How does the programme contribute to job creation, skills development, and wealth distribution within Botswana?
MOAKUFI: Overall, the programme addresses objectives of quality jobs, increased jobs and most importantly inclusivity in the jobs sector. Below is a brief elaboration.
• Job creation: The programme creates employment through localised contracts that have previously been done by foreign companies and promoting use of local manufactured products to support local value chains that employ citizens.
• Skills development: Through the CEEP, all companies benefiting from Debswana are required to demonstrate commitment to developing skills of their workforce. Non- citizen companies are also required to partner with citizen owned companies to the extent possible to ensure skills transfer where the skills required are not readily available.
• Quality and quantity of jobs: The Debswana adjudication process rewards a business partner who demonstrates higher job creation and quality of employment through remuneration and benefits such as pensions and medical aid.
• Wealth distribution: The programme is based on principles of merit and competitiveness and provides equal opportunity to all citizen companies. Where companies are deemed competent but do not have financial capability to deliver the required services, Debswana facilitates funding through the ‘ Access and Management of funding’ initiative with most of the commercial banks which removes barriers to entry to participate in Debswana opportunities.
BG: What are the main challenges Debswana faces in implementing its Citizen Economic Empowerment Programme?
MOAKOFI: There are several challenges that the group experiences at various levels of implementing the CEEP. Some of the challenges include:
• Mismatch of citizen skills and opportunities availed. Given that Debswana requires a critical diverse products and services, with some of the opportunities specialised, and the fact that citizens are at different journeys in terms of level of capacity, some opportunities end up being deferred pending citizen capacity.
• Lack of value addition by citizens due to over reliance in some instances on foreign capabilities with erosion of potential citizen benefits leading to instances where citizens are not beneficial owners.
• Lack of start- up capital for locally produced products adding to undue delay on idea to market of products.
• Lack of distinction and diversity of citizen services and product offering leading to high competition amongst citizens to access Debswana opportunities and over reliance on Debswana contracts for the sustainability of citizen businesses.
BG: Are there emerging trends or opportunities in Botswana’s economy that Debswana aims to leverage to enhance its economic empowerment efforts?
MOAKUFI: Vision 2036 on achieving prosperity for all provides a good premise for driving Debswana CEEP. The same can be said of the legislation on Economic Inclusion that supports policies geared towards advancing citizen interests.
Debswana is leveraging on the national agenda to drive entrepreneurship as a path to creating additional value by supporting entrepreneurship development. The other opportunity area is on digital transformation to transition Debswana to a technology leader which is also aligned with the national vision – our key initiative in this regard being the ‘ Future Smart Connected Mines’ programme. This will create opportunities for new skillsets in the economy.
BG: How does Debswana ensure the sustainability of its economic empowerment initiatives beyond the lifespan of its mining operations?
MOAKUFI: The programme focuses on developing sustainable business and to this end we conducted a Supplier Sustainability Survey in 2023 to establish the baseline sustainability of citizen entities.
The survey looked at aspects such as financial maturity, management teams, diversity of service/ product offerings and ratio of revenue from Debswana. The programme will be delivering supplier development training aimed at capacitating suppliers in areas where companies scored lowest.
BG: Debswana has set itself a target spend of P20 billion on citizen companies as well as creating 20 000 jobs by end of 2024. Is the company on course to achieve these ambitious targets?
MOAKUFI: As at end of 2023, our collective spend is at P18.2b and we believe we will reach the target by end of 2024. In terms of jobs, the 2023 Employment Impact Survey established a job impact of 17,177.
We anticipate that the balance of the jobs will be realised by our efforts on industry development and diversification focusing on supporting local manufacturing of goods used in our operations.