MIXED FORTUNES FOR BMC
Botswana Meat Commission (BMC) has recorded increased revenues of P20.1 million for the period of January 2022 to date compared to a budget of P11.4 million in 2021.
This was said by the Minister of Agricultural Development and Food Security, Karabo Gare, when responding to a question by Member of Parliament (MP) for Lobatse, Dr Thapelo Matsheka, in parliament last week, which reads as thus; “The performance status of the Botswana Meat Commission (BMC) to date”.
Gare hinted that the total of number animals slaughtered for the period (01 January to February end 2022) stood at 3 029 compared to 561 during the same period in 2021.
He also gave clarity on the process for the appointment of the Chief Executive Officer (CEO) for BMC. “The position was advertised and potential candidates were interviewed. The approval by Cabinet appointment of the CEO will be concluded by the end of March 2022,” he said.
According to Gare, BMC has just developed an organisational strategy aimed at addressing matters of an urgent nature within the BMC, referred to as MERITING 2022-2025 Strategy.
“It is through the implementation of this strategy, which is in its first year of implementation, that BMC will address existing challenges and meet the growing and shifting market demands. The BMC MERITING Strategy maps out the direction the BMC will take to fulfill its mandate as well as meet its strategic goals, driven by the desired principle of self-sustenance, sustainability, and commerciality,” said Gare.
Gare went on to highlight some of the aspirational target(s) set to occasion a turned-around and a solvent-entity with positive contribution to national accounts through strategic priorities.
“Firstly, it is the organisational redesign to transform and make BMC perform with a new purpose-fit business and operating model with commensurate change-support programme, restructured cost-structure and optimised utilisation of assets, appropriate resourcing of the strategy through multi-faceted funding options/ strategies to include also commercial/ private funding entities with reduced overdependency on government just to mention a few,” highlighted Gare.
Meanwhile, Gare said the BMC (Transition) Act 2019 is expected to commence during the first quarter of the financial year 2022/2023. “The Transition Bill paves way for three core activities, being; corporatisation of BMC, establishment of a meat industry regulatory authority (Note: The Meat Industry Regulatory Authority Bill is currently circulating in ministries); and liberalisation of the meat export market,” said Gare.