Thamane charts CEDA’s new path
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Citizen Entrepreneurial Development Agency (CEDA) Chief Executive Officer (CEDA), Thabo Thamane has revealed that his organisation is now working on becoming a fully self-sustaining business after a period of relative success under his stewardship, which has seen the institution being able to self-stain operationally.
Thamane expects CEDA to be fully self-sustaining within the next 6 years, following a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) entered into with Malaysian based SME Bank, a state owned financial development institution. “If SME Bank can add so much value in the economy of Malaysia, so can CEDA. We have got similar mandates but them they are self-sustaining, they do not get funding from government and of course they are much older than us,” Thamane told Weekend Post this week.
“They do come here to look at how we do our business and then advise us on where to improve.” Thamane believes CEDA is not far from achieving its desired feat, even going to the extent of affirming that the institution can even continue to operate even if it were not to get subvention from government, albeit with a limited budget.
“Today as we speak, our salaries, our vehicles, anything that we do as a cost to us we do not pay it from government money. When we receive government subvention all goes to the projects,” Thamane said. “That was the first step, operationally, let us pay our own costs, we achieved it. We even supplement government funding.”CEDA is currently reviewing its guidelines to look at their operational model after being given the green light by Ministry of Investment, Trade and Industry.
“We need to change our model such that we become commercial orientated institution but at the same time being a blend between commercial and developmental such that the commercial arm supplement the development arm,” he argued. When Thamane took over the reign at CEDA, his major focus as a priority was ensuring that he improves the organisation’s collections, a feat which has been achieved amid strenuous effort.
“It was our priority when I took over. I said, you know what, we must ramp up collections,” Thamane said. “Secondly we had an entitlement mentality, people said this is government and will get CEDA loans to finances things like buying vehicles, and there was that culture generally and we had to work around transforming CEDA.” Thamane indicated that ultimately, CEDA had to introduce drastic measures, tightened the processes, but ensured that their default position remain in favour of citizens.
“We formed a dedicated collections team, focusing solely on collections, we improved our collections techniques and it paid dividends because our collections started shooting up. It showed that people we not prioritising CEDA,” observed Thamane. “They paid others first and CEDA last just because we are government owned. And that still exist today but it is now manageable.’’
As part of his transformation, Thamane also formed the credit department, which focused on assessing applications and ensuring that applications fit into the institutions’ guidelines. However, there was a problem with that. As CEDA introduced these business operations, customers started complaining of the turn-around time for assessments of applications, forcing the organisation to create customer advisor unit, which then ensured only applications which meets all necessary requirements pass through for assessment.
Owing to many start-ups funded by CEDA failing to make the grade, Thamane introduced the rehabilitation department, which is focusing on offering diagnosis and prognosis on CEDA funded businesses which are not doing well. This financial year, Government offered CEDA just over P270 million as subvention, but the institution had a staggering P578 million budget for loan disbursement, a phenomenon, that Thamane attributes to strong collection mechanism that CEDA has put in place.
According to Thamane, CEDA’s success has been backed by various factors, including creating a conducive environment for employees as well as training programme. He narrates that each member staff is given an opportunity to advance themselves career wise. An archetypal example is former tea lady, who now works as Accounts Executive at CEDA after being schooled by the institution to acquire an ATT qualification.
However, such investment in staff also has its own downside, with the commercial banks plucking from CEDA staff to boost their ranks. “That is the biggest problem that I have as an institution, because I belong to government I cannot compete with commercial banks in terms of salaries, but I just have to create a conducive environment,” he said.
“It is impossible to compete with commercial banks and we are worried that our employees are being poached by other organisations. Though we are happy for them as it is part of growth on their part and they add value in other part of the society; some of them sometimes even comeback because though we cannot pay more than commercial banks, they like the environment here,” he said.
BOOSTING CEDA BALANCE SHEET
CEDA is currently acquiring land country wide, with Kanye, Palapye, Maun and Kasane already identified for land allocation. “As you become sustainable, we must also improve your balance sheet such that if you want to borrow in the money market, you must be able to show a strong balance sheet. It cannot be just loans without any other assets,” he contended.
ON MERGING OF PUBLIC ENTEPRISES WITH OVERALPPING MANDATES
Thamane has offered his opinion on the anticipated reviewing and possible merging of quasi-government funding institutions such as National Development Bank (NDB), Botswana Development Corporation and CEDA among others. “I know what CEDA does, I have been here for the past 15 years; I know what LEA does, and I know what other financiers do. What is very critical is that we must be every carefully when making this analysis of merging public enterprises because their mandates were very specific,” he warned.
“It is one thing as for an institution that is not performing as per its mandate. If it does not perform, you do not just say you merge it. You basically say; why is it not performing? Is it the people or is it the mandate? So that is the starting point; If it is the people, you then put the right people so that they can make it perform; if it is the mandate, then review the mandate and then merge it with other institutions.”
Thamane contended that the last thing that government needs is to create a monster of an institution, because the bigger the institution, the bigger the process. “We welcome this idea of a possible review of the institutions, and where possible some will be merged. If they decide CEDA merges with other institution, I will take it, “he said.
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ENVIRONMENT ISSUES: Masisi asks Virginia for help
President Mokgweetsi Masisi says the issue of sustainable natural resources management has always been an important part of Botswana’s national development agenda.
Masisi was speaking this week on the occasion of a public lecture at Virginia Polytechnic, under theme, “Merging Conservation, Democracy and Sustainable Development in Botswana.”
Botswana, according to Masisi, holds the view that the environment is fragile and as such, must be managed and given the utmost protection to enable the achievement of Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).
“It is necessary that we engage one another in the interchange of ideas, perspectives, visualizations of social futures, and considerations of possible strategies and courses of action for sustainable development,” said Masisi.
On the other hand, dialogue, in the form of rigorous democratic discourse among stakeholders presents another basis for reconfiguring how people act on their environments, with a view to conserving its resources that “we require to meet our socio-economic development needs on a sustainable basis,” Masisi told attendees at the public lecture.
He said government has a keen interest in understanding the epidemiology and ecology of diseases of both domestic and wild animals. “It is our national interest to forestall the dire consequences of animal diseases on our communities livelihoods.”
President Masisi hoped that both Botswana and Virginia could help each other in curbing contagious diseases of wildlife.
“We believe that Virginia Tech can reasonably share their experiences, research insights and advances in veterinary sciences and medicines, to help us build capacity for knowledge creation and improve efforts of managing and containing contagious diseases of wildlife. The ground is fertile for entering into such a mutually beneficial partnership.”
When explaining environmental issues further, Masisi said efforts of conservation and sustainable development might at times be hampered by the emergence and recurrence of diseases when pathogens mutate and take host of more than one species.
“Water pollution also kills aquatic life, such as fish, which is one of humanity’s much deserved sources of food. In this regard, One Health Approach imposes ecological responsibility upon all of us to care for the environment and the bio-diversity therein.”
He said the production and use of animal vaccines is an important space and tool for conservation, particularly to deal with trans-border animal diseases.
“In Botswana, our 43-year-old national premier pharmaceutical institution called Botswana Vaccine Institute has played its role well. Through its successful production of highly efficacious Foot and Mouth vaccines, the country is able to contain this disease as well as supply vaccines to other countries in the sub-region.:
He has however declared that there is need for more help, saying “We need more capacitation to deal with and contain other types of microbial that affect both animals and human health.”
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Masisi saddened by deaths of elephant attacks
President Mokgweetsi Masisi has expressed a strong worry over elephants killing people in Botswana. When speaking in Virginia this week, Masisi said it is unfortunate that Batswana have paid a price with their own blood through being attacked by elephants.
“Communities also suffer unimaginable economic losses yearly when their crops are eaten by the elephants. In spite of such incidents of human-elephant conflict, our people embrace living together with the animals. They fully understand wildlife conservation and its economic benefits in tourism.”
In 2018, Nthobogang Samokwase’s father was attacked by an elephant when travelling from the fields, where he stayed during the cropping season.
It was reported that the man couldn’t run because of his age. He was found trampled by the elephant and was pronounced dead upon arrival at the hospital.
In the same year, in Maun, a 57-year-old British woman was attacked by an elephant at Boro and died upon arrival at the hospital. The woman was with her Motswana partner, and were walking dogs in the evening.
Last month, a Durban woman named Carly Marshall survived an elephant attack while on holiday in the bush in Botswana. She was stabbed by one of the elephant’s tucks through the chest and was left with bruises. Marshall also suffered several fractured ribs from the ordeal.
President Masisi Botswana has the largest population of African elephants in the world, totaling more than 130 000. “This has been possible due to progressive conservation policies, partnerships with the communities, and investment in wildlife management programmes.”
In order to benefit further from wildlife, Masisi indicated that government has re-introduced controlled hunting in 2019 after a four-year pause. “The re-introduction of hunting was done in an open, transparent and democratic way, giving the communities an opportunity to air their views. The funds from the sale of hunting quota goes towards community development and elephant conservation.”
He stressed that for conservation to succeed, the local people must be involved and derive benefits from the natural resources within their localities.
“There must be open and transparent consultations which involve all sectors of the society. It is against this backdrop that as a country, we lead the continent on merging conservation, democracy and sustainable development.”
Masisi stated that Botswana is open to collaborative opportunities, “particularly with identifiable partners such as Virginia Tech, in other essential areas such as conservation, and the study of the interplay among the ecology of diseases of wild animals and plants, and their effects on human health and socio-economic development.”
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Gov’t commit to injecting more funds in fighting HIV
Minister for State President Kabo Morwaeng says government will continue to make resources available in terms of financial allocations and human capital to ensure that Botswana achieves the ideal of eradicating HIV and AIDS as a public health threat by 2030.
Morwaeng was speaking this morning in Gaborone at the High-Level Advocacy event to accelerate HIV Prevention in Botswana. He said the National AIDS and Health Promotion Agency (NAPHA), in partnership with UNAIDS, UN agencies, the Global Fund and PEPFAR, have started a process of developing transition readiness plan for sustainability of HIV prevention and treatment programmes.
“It is important for us, as a country that has had a fair share of donor support in the response to an epidemic such as HIV and AIDS, to look beyond the period when the level of assistance would have reduced, or ceased, thus calling for domestic financing for all areas which were on donor support.”
Morwaeng said this is important as the such a plan will guarantee that all the gains accrued from the response with donor support will be sustained until the end when “we reach the elimination of HIV and AIDS as a public health threat by 20230,” he said.
“I commit to continue support efforts towards strengthened HIV prevention, accentuating HIV primary prevention and treatment as prevention towards Zero New Infections, Zero Stigma, Discrimination and Zero AIDS related death, to end AIDS in Botswana.”
He reiterated that government commits to tackle legislative, policy and programming challenges that act as barriers to the achievement of the goal of ending AIDS as a public health threat.
In the financial year 2022/2023, a total of 119 Civil Society Organizations, including Faith Based Organizations, were contracted with an amount of P100 million to implement HIV and NCDs prevention activities throughout the country, and the money was drawn from the Consolidated Fund.
Through an upcoming HIV Prevention Symposium, technical stakeholders will use outcomes to develop the Botswana HIV Prevention Acceleration Road Map for 2023-2025.
Morwaeng stated that government will support and ensure that Botswana plays its part achieving the road map. He said there is need to put hands on the deck to ensure that Botswana sustains progress made so far in the fight against HIV and AIDS.
“There are tremendous achievements thus far to, reach and surpass the UNAIDS fast track targets of 95%- 95%- 95% by the year 2025. As reflected by the BAIS preliminary results of 2021, we now stand at 95- 98- 98 against the set targets.”
“These achievements challenge us to now shift our gears and strive to know who are the remaining 5% for those aware of their HIV status, 2% of enrolment on treatment by those aware of their status and 2% of viral suppression by those on treatment.”
Explaining this further, Morwaeng said shift in gears should extend to coming up with robust strategies of determining where these remaining people are as well as how they will be reached with the necessary services.
“These are just some of the many variables that are required to ensure that as a country, we are well positioned to reaching the last mile of our country’s response to the HIV and AIDS pandemic.”