Market Players sets up entrepreneurship hub
Inculcate winning culture, health and wellness priority among entrepreneurs
- Botswana Guardian
- 10 Dec 2021
- Keletso Thobega
Market Players this week launched the 21km for 21 reasons campaign, a relay half- marathon aimed at raising funds to set up a fully- furnished and equipped entrepreneurship hub at the Main Mall in Gaborone.
Market Players is a non- profit entrepreneurial development organisation committed to reducing the failure rate of businesses owned by indigenous Batswana in the country.
Executive Director of Market Players, Katlego Mokgethi, told Botswana Guardian that some of the objectives of the project are not only to inculcate and grow the entrepreneurship culture among indigenous Batswana, but to also help forge strong, trusting and effective relationships between entrepreneurs, local business community, government and the public. It also aims to encourage collaboration, investment, market access and social responsibility among local private sector. They also want to encourage mental and physical fitness among entrepreneurs, and that is why they decided to raise funds through a marathon. Research on economic livelihood of Batswana indicates that over- reliance of the local economy on government has proven to be an underlying cause of Botswana’s failure to diversify the country’s gross domestic product generators, and maximise economic growth. Mokgethi corroborated this, reiterating that government has employed and implemented expansionary fiscal policy through various subsidies, tax rebates, reduced interest rate, favourable trade policies
for local companies as well as increased spending through several economic development initiatives. However, despite the great ratings, which look good on paper, the reality on the ground is that unemployment remains high at 18 percent and wealth distribution in the country remains inequitable. Botswana was listed among the five most unequal countries in the 2017 Gini Index. Mokgethi said this is evidence that there is a mismatch of efforts from government, private sector and the public, towards expediting the country’s economic growth. She argued that while the Government has an irrefutable role to play in creating an environment conducive to business, the business sector and individual members of society should also play a role in efforts geared towards achieving sustainable and inclusive economic growth. She said entrepreneurship is the backbone of the economy, and the fact that Botswana’s SME failure rate is within the 70 percent mark is disconcerting. “Most indigenous citizens lack business acumen and are unable to transition from SME status to multi- national corporations; and this is largely because they lack sufficient knowledge, skills and experiences to enable them to make sound business decisions. “Furthermore, most businesses owned by indigenous Batswana are run at a subsistence level, and without a succession plan. But for every local business that shuts down, we lose out on an opportunity to solve the nation’s socio- economic problems.
“By improving the survival rate of citizenowned businesses, we can expedite citizen economic empowerment, break generational cycles of poverty through sustainable job creation and reinvestment into local communities.’’
Mokgethi said Market Players’ key ‘ differentiator’ is that it is solutions- orientated, therefore, they do not just focus on passively discussing problems, but also on actively educating and equipping citizen entrepreneurs, engaging stakeholders on policy reforms and expediting processes that strategically position business owners as highly competitive market players.
“At the heart of our vision is to improve the survival rate of businesses owned by indigenous Batswana, and our mission is to hone the quality of business acumen of entrepreneurs in Botswana, while also encouraging support from government and consumers. “We aim to forge effective, strong and trusting partnerships with government, business and civil society.” Mokgethi said Market Players currently have 285 entrepreneurs on their database, all citizens of Botswana, 83 percent of them being youth aged between 18 and 35, and cut across different economic sectors such as innovation and technology, farming, agro- processing, construction, multimedia and services. Last year, Market Players collaborated with a South Africa incubator to take 20 entrepreneurs on a week- long boot- camp and networking business excursion in Johannesburg. Earlier this year, Market Players also contributed to the revision of the African Growth and Opportunity Act National Response Strategy, and were appointed to serve in the National Reference Group, under the Gender and Youth Committee.
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