COVID-19 Industry Support Facility (ISF)

In April 2020, Government approved a COVID-19 Economic Response Plan, which was a short-term plan aimed at addressing risks facing businesses, workers, and households. Some interventions in the Plan like the food hampers were implemented up to the end of June 2020 whilst others like the loan guarantee continue to be offered. The key strategic objectives of the Plan, which were supported by COVID -19 Pandemic Relief Fund Order, were support to workers, stabilisation of businesses, ensuring availability of strategic reserves, and promoting opportunities for economic diversification.

Beyond the COVID-19 Response Plan, Government prepared a medium to long term Economic Recovery and Transformation Plan (ERTP) for mitigating the effects of the pandemic. The ERTP, which was approved by Parliament as an addendum to the Mid-Term Review of NDP 11, is currently being implemented. Furthermore, in September 2020, Parliament appropriated P1.3 billion as ISF.

Purpose of the guidelines

To support the Economic Recovery and Transformation Plan, there is a need to extend financial support to assist revival of the economy. As part of the extended support for the economy, a dedicated Industry Support Facility has been created under the existing COVID – 19 Pandemic Relief Fund. It is against this backdrop that these Guidelines have been developed, mainly to serve as a guide to potential applicants and as a control measure for administering the support facility.

Administration

Due to the magnitude and diverse nature of the eligible sectors, it has been decided that the following institutions would administer the support facility on behalf of the Government. These are the National Development Bank (NDB), Local Enterprise Authority (LEA), Citizen Entrepreneurial Development Agency (CEDA), and Botswana Development Corporation (BDC) as detailed below;

National Development Bank (NDB) has been allocated P600 million of the total BWP1.3 billion which is divided into three specific funds as detailed below;

• • Tourism – BWP200M
  • Agriculture – BWP100M
  • General Industry – BWP300M

The main target is to disburse the funds across the different sectors in line with stipulated amounts above with the intention to sustain businesses and protecting jobs.