Since the beginning of the year, the spread of COVID-19 globally has created an important new source of concern for the world economy.
For Botswana, while we wait for a full picture on the damage done, the official numbers released so far paint a gloomy picture. In general the domestic economy is expected to shrink by minus 13 percent. This is due to a sharp decline in major sectors like Mining (-33.6%), Trade, Hotels & Restaurants (-32.2%), Manufacturing (-10.0%), Social & Personal Services (-4.8), and Transport & Communications (-4.1%).
With our country being amongst the hard hit, very soon the question for the country leadership and citizenry at large will be how to lift the lockdowns while keeping the pandemic in check.
From where I stand, despite downbeat economic predictions and an imminent global recession, Botswana’s recovery offers opportunities for entrepreneurial success that exceed anything we’ve seen ever since our political independence.
Already conversations in our digital corridors do tell that our nation is waiting for that moment we finally make a shift from strategies on containing the pandemic to how our society can exist post Covid 19. In short, at heart of the digital conversations is economic recovery. It is given that there is no how we can talk about economic recovery and not mention entrepreneurs. So perhaps as nation that has been trying to develop or grow entrepreneurship, we should be now looking at how to best capitalize on Covid 19 to make our dream a reality.
Entrepreneurs in other countries will come up with solution first, for their own people. That is why we too need to give room to one of our own, to lead us to self-reliance, self-sufficiency. ..Victor Baatweng (Journalist)
In short, Covid 19 has presented an opportunity for both existing and budding entrepreneurs in Botswana. This is to say, our entrepreneurship ecosystem has been put into test. We now know what lacks and if we brutally assess the outcome will be a solution brought up by an entrepreneur or a group of them.
One must also state that the national Covid 19 lockdown that we are currently operating under was a necessity if we are to safeguard the future off this country. But to have and live that future, comfortably, we need to start planning for it now. To do that we might need to ask ourselves a few brutal questions. This would help us understand where we stand more especially when it comes to entrepreneurs. Question is, where are our entrepreneurs during hours like these? What role would we want, or should they ideally play? For the budding ones, how are we preparing them to play the role they are supposed to play in the future? Is our entrepreneurship ecosystem supportive enough or it maybe it needs some fixing? All these questions we have always had even before Covid 19.
But I want to believe that they come to our minds often during this time of separation. We are a nation that has always been known for resilience. We are known about self-reliance. The fact of the matter is that we will need these two – resilience and self-reliance post Covid 19. Nations across the world will be locking after themselves.
Entrepreneurs in other countries will come up with solution first, for their own people. That is why we too need to give room to one of our own, to lead us to self-reliance, self-sufficiency. We need to be self-reliant in food, energy, health and education. All these need entrepreneurs who can be imaginative and turn things around in our favour. We just need to be supportive to them while we keep our eyes on the ball. #staysafe