In a move set to radically transform local participation in Botswana’s lucrative tourism sector, Okavango Wilderness Safaris and the Local Enterprise Authority signed a landmark Memorandum of Agreement in Maun on Tuesday evening.
The agreement officially launches the Citizen Economic Empowerment Programme, creating a powerful public-private ecosystem designed to transition citizen-owned small, medium, and micro enterprises into mainstream tourism value chains. This five-year cooperation framework bridges a leading state-owned enterprise dedicated to business development with a premier conservation and hospitality operator to foster sustainable growth at the grassroots level.
Speaking at the signing ceremony, Wilderness Caretaker Managing Director Joe Matome stated that the partnership represents a critical turning point for national localisation. He noted that while there are moments when you sign an agreement because it makes business sense, there are rare moments where you sign something because you genuinely believe it has the potential to change lives. For Wilderness, this partnership represents the latter.
The agreement serves as the final building block in a deliberate, multi-year strategy by Wilderness to systematically dismantle the barriers faced by local entrepreneurs. Matome explained that while the 2024 Local Supplier Expo opened up procurement channels and awarded fifteen million Pula to new citizen suppliers to date, entrepreneurs quickly hit a second wall regarding access to capital.
This prompted a June 2025 partnership with Stanbic Bank Botswana to provide commercial financing backed by real procurement contracts. Writing the next chapter on Tuesday night, Matome asserted that finance alone does not build sustainable businesses. He emphasized that businesses also need mentorship, governance, stronger systems, technical expertise, coaching, and market intelligence, which is exactly what the partnership with the Local Enterprise Authority brings to the table.
For the Local Enterprise Authority, the collaboration offers a direct solution to the single greatest hurdle facing local producers, which is securing predictable and sustainable market access. Local Enterprise Authority Caretaker Chief Executive Officer, Thato Jensen, highlighted that many local enterprises manufacture high-quality goods ranging from cleaning chemicals and cosmetics to agricultural produce and indigenous foods, but flounder without consistent buyers. Jensen observed that without markets, businesses find it difficult to attract finance, expand operations, and remain competitive.
This new partnership directly addresses that challenge by combining the authority’s enterprise development expertise with Okavango Wilderness Safaris’ established procurement network to create a practical pathway into Botswana’s premium tourism value chain.
Under the five-year agreement, the programme will explicitly target both small, medium, and micro enterprises and Community Development Institutions, including trusts and community-based organisations operating within Wilderness areas of presence. The Local Enterprise Authority will deploy targeted capacity building, business management support, technical skills transfer, coaching, and governance training. Crucially, the partnership will facilitate the direct listing of potential local suppliers with Wilderness for accelerated market access, while supporting new start-ups and business expansions within identified market opportunities. The authority will also implement cession arrangements with financial institutions to unlock start-up and trade finance, backed by bankable business plans and continuous performance monitoring.
The joint initiative aligns heavily with the Government’s Botswana Economic Transformation Programme and the Local Enterprise Authority’s 2026–2029 Corporate Strategy, which both place private sector-led localisation and economic diversification at the heart of the country’s future. Special focus will be directed toward localisation and innovation within agricultural produce, manufacturing, and community-based natural resource projects. Tourism currently employs over 50,500 Batswana, accounting for 6.7 percent of national employment. Wilderness alone has heavily anchored this footprint, injecting 1.8 billion Pula into local procurement, 1.2 billion Pula in citizen wages, and 305 million Pula in government and community concession fees over the past decade.
Both leaders stressed that the empowerment framework is a core business necessity rather than a corporate charity exercise. Matome noted that national ambitions become real when a farmer in Shorobe supplies fresh produce to their camps, when a Maun truck owner handles emergency logistics during floods, or when local designers renovate camp interiors. Closing the ceremony, Jensen issued a sharp challenge to other major corporations and state-owned enterprises across Botswana to mimic this procurement-driven development model, noting that the private sector remains the engine of economic growth. Addressing the local entrepreneurs who will benefit from the program, Matome made it clear that standards would remain world-class, concluding that they are not lowering the bar, but rather helping more Batswana reach it.
