30 Jul 2024

Government has committed to and has implemented various citizen economic empowerment interventions appropriate for the times, since independence and has forever been raising the bar consistently.

This was said by Minister of Entrepreneurship, Mr Karabo Gare in response to a parliamentary question on Monday.

Mr Gare said development and implementation of new initiatives geared at creating economic empowerment for targeted citizen had been on the rise leveraging existing legislative and regulatory frameworks.

“Nothing was ever halted in both public and private sector to await the promulgation of the Economic Empowerment Regulations,” he said.

He added that the whole nation stood to benefit from all economic empowerment initiatives that had been implemented, ongoing and upcoming, cutting across education, healthcare, food security, jobs, land ownership and enterprise development.

Meanwhile, the minister explained that the Economic Inclusion Act, 2021 served various purposes such as regulating, authorising, outlawing, providing funds, granting, declaring or restricting, which impacted diverse stakeholders and had the implications on the regulations making process.

He stated that the approach adopted had eight mandatory steps which emphasised  consultation, impact assessment, defined approval process, which included parliamentary scrutiny, promulgation and implementation followed by monitoring and review.

“Currently, we have done the initial drafting of the regulations and consultations with individuals, organisations, and interest groups are ongoing, to give stakeholders opportunity to express their views, concerns, suggestions and contribute to shaping of the proposed regulations. Due process is not yet complete,” he said.

Member of Parliament for Maun West, Mr Dumelang Saleshando had asked the minister to state if the regulations for the Economic Inclusion law had been promulgated and brought into effect and if so, state the date they effected and the number of targeted Batswana who had benefited from the law. Ends