Becoming Competitive

According to the SMME Policy, SMMEs in Botswana have remained static and most of them ultimately died, with at most 85 percent of them dying within the five years of start-up (Small Business Policy 1996). Therefore LEA was set up in reaction to the numerous challenges encountered by the SMMEs, hence its mission to promote and facilitate entrepreneurship and enterprise development in Botswana through targeted interventions. As part of the initial attempt to execute its tasks, LEA has adopted the Enterprise Competitiveness Development Strategy.

The aim of the strategy is to bring together critical initiatives that need to be implemented, in order to promote enterprise competitiveness. The result of this coordinated effort would be a multiplier effect resulting in SMME growth and competitiveness.

The broad objective of this strategy is to create an enabling environment that will foster growth and improve competitiveness of SMMEs in Botswana. However, specific objectives of the strategy are:

1. To develop SMMEs capability to compete in both domestic and international environment
2. To improve SMMEs production capacity
3. To strengthen productivity in the SMME sector
4. To promote exports
5. To ensure quality improvement for the SMMEs
6. To Promote the development of vertical integration and horizontal linkages
7. To achieve economic diversification
8. To improve capacity development

To achieve these objectives, the strategy recommends implementation of the following programs;

• Productivity and Quality improvement
• Technology Improvement
• Credit facilitation
• Access to domestic and international markets
• Capacity building
• Production capacity
• Export promotion
• Business Linkages

Productivity Improvement

LEA has been mandated with the responsibility of implementing policies and programs for the promotion and development of small, medium and micro enterprises in a consolidated manner. One such critical issue to consider for the promotion and development of SMME is support for productivity and excellence. To achieve that, LEA has developed a Productivity Improvement Program which aims at assisting SMMEs improve their business performance. LEA has a collaborative working relation with BNPC to implement this program.

Objectives of the Program

• Helping SMMEs improve their business processes
• Assisting SMME increase their production levels
• Helping SMMEs achieve competitiveness
• Assisting SMMEs achieve customer focus

Cluster Development

In a global and technologically advanced world, businesses irrespective of their size can no longer keep to markets demands in terms of sustainable supply and use of technology. Therefore, creating economies of scale to generate competitive advantage through clusters amongst industries becomes very important. It is for this reason that LEA has adopted clustering as a strategy, herein referred to as Cluster Development Program (CDP) to facilitate growth and competitiveness in LEA supported SMMEs.

Objectives of the Program

• To assist SMMEs to increase their level of expertise
• To assist enterprises increase their production capacity
• To provide for SMMEs to create economies of scale
• To make provision for creation of Linkages

Quality Improvement

The globalization of domestic and international markets means that even smaller firms should find it increasingly easy to source, produce, and deliver anywhere in the world. Despite this, SMMEs in Botswana are still faced with improving quality in their production systems. In most cases, this is due to lack of proper access to information and technology adoption. It is against this background that LEA has considered it necessary to promote and facilitate implementation of the Quality Improvement Program (QIP) through the Quality Management System (QMS). This vital move will immensely benefit the SMMEs to consistently provide products that meet customer needs. LEA has a collaborative working relation with BOBS to implement this program.

Objectives of the Program

To promote the use of standards among SMMEs in Botswana and specifically:

• Performance improvement and increased profitability in SMMEs
• Promoting effective management of risks in SMMEs
• Assurance of quality products or services to Customers

Joint Venture Creation

LEA has adopted a robust Joint Venture program to facilitate growth, competitiveness and capacitate LEA supported SMMEs. The Joint Venture program if successfully implemented is expected to promote enterprise development and competitive entrepreneurship culture. The program will further facilitate SMMEs to share skills and economic risk, and increased profit margins for local enterprises. Joint Ventures are not easy and have a legal slant for them to succeed. LEA has a collaborative working relation with BEDIA to implement this program.

The program is envisaged to achieve the following objectives

1. Create effective and Sustainable Joint Ventures
2. To strengthen capacity and Growth of SMMES
3. To link local SMMEs to large firms
4. To link local SMMES and Foreign Investors
5. Create partnership between SMMEs