Francistown — The President of the All Africa Association for Small and Medium Enterprises (AAASME), Dr Ebiekure Eradiri has honoured President Advocate Duma Boko with the UbuntuSusu Continental SME Billion Fund recognition.
The presentation was made on the sidelines of the Trade Up North 10th Anniversary in Francistown on Thursday.
Speaking after the presentation, Dr Eradiri said the recognition acknowledges President Boko’s commitment to growing SMEs and creating an enabling environment for small businesses in Botswana.
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He said Botswana’s ‘Beyond Diamond’ agenda and the UbuntuSusu Continental SMEs Fund shared the same objective of building an economy where enterprise, not extraction, drove national prosperity.
Dr Eradiri said AAASME had established the UbuntuSusu SMEs Fund at the tune of $1.4 billion to assist SMEs in Africa to access finance.
He said the major challenge facing SMEs in Africa and across the globe was access to finance and access to markets, noting that financial lenders often imposed stringent conditions.
For Botswana, Dr Eradiri said the recognition and the Fund presented an opportunity for local SMEs to tap into continental financing, markets and partnerships, and to benefit from what he described as ‘African solutions to African problems’.
The UbuntuSusu Continental SME Billion Fund is an Afrocentric financing initiative aimed at mobilising 125 million SMEs across Africa to pool resources and access funding. The Fund seeks to catalyse economic growth and accelerate prosperity in line with Aspiration 1 of the African Union’s Agenda 2063.
President Boko welcomed the honour, saying government remained committed to supporting SMEs as key drivers of job creation, economic diversification and contribution towards Gross Domestic Product (GDP).
Meanwhile, the Minister of Transport and Infrastructure, Mr Noah Salakae, said the transport system and the mining sector were interlinked and cannot survive on their own.
He said while the transport sector did not extract minerals, it moved them, exported them and delivered their value to the nation.
The minister said extraction would be meaningless without a viable method of transportation of raw materials to processing facilities.
He said with the continued expansion of the mining sector beyond diamonds, government had identified strategic mega transport infrastructure investments.
These, he said, included accelerating the Mosetse-Kazungula-Livingstone rail link in Zambia, and the Mmamabula-Lephalale rail link to improve freight movement.
Mr Salakae further stated that government was also looking at expanding copper belt access networks through the Trans-Kalahari railway line, whose feasibility study had been completed.
The minister further stated that talks were ongoing to rehabilitate the A1 (Ramatlabama – Ramokgwebana) highway, while a 20km section of the A3 (Francistown-Nata) was recently opened to traffic. He said the Nata-Kazungula section of the A3 highway was also under construction.
The newly appointed Coordinator for AAASME in Botswana and founder of Trade Up North, Ms Vuyiswa Mojela, said in an interview that she was happy with the recent discovery of copper mines in the country.
Ms Mojela said the discovery of these mines meant that SMEs would thrive. However, she expressed concern that government was moving slowly to allow Batswana to directly sell these minerals despite trading with reputable companies.
She challenged government to urgently address the issue so that Batswana also benefited from this lucrative market.
In the meantime, some of the SMEs that participated in the Trade Up North 10th Anniversary expressed appreciation for the opportunity to showcase their products.
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The Managing Director of Destiny Creek, a company that deals in tea beverages, Ms Boitumelo Ntsosa, said most of her products were sourced from outside to produce different kinds of tea and tea accessories.
She added that her products were available at Square Mart in Gaborone.
The 2026 Trade Up North Mining and Construction Conference and Expo was aimed at promoting citizen economic empowerment and industrial participation in Botswana’s mining, manufacturing and construction sectors.
The Expo brought together exhibitors, entrepreneurs, and visitors from across Botswana and the SADC region to explore business opportunities and forge partnerships.
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