Botswana is among Africa's most stable countries with a stable economy;
it is the world's largest producer of diamonds, which had made Botswana to become among the middle income countries in the world. Botswana is also one of the smallest countries with a population of about 2.004 million people as well as an annual population growth of about 1.9%. Nonetheless, Botswana is a country known for its credibility in Africa and it’s free from corruption practic-es (CSO, 2011). Botswana is a multi-ethnic nation with people of diverse origins, its official language is the British English language, but they have other local languages like Setswana,Sekgalagadi, and Kalanga as they are widely spoken and known among its people. However, the major ethnic groups in Botswana are Tswana, Kalanga, Basarwa, Kgalagadi, Whites of European origins and 1%
of other ethnic groups. Botswana irrespective of the various ethnic groups with different languages and cultures is known as an indigenous nation that has col-lective cultures which are similar from each other. The nation of Botswana is one of Africa’s longest permanent multi-party democracies. It has a democrati-cally elected system of government that has held continuous democratic elec-tions since her independence in 1966. The nation has been progressive and peaceful.
Botswana is economically known across the world as one of the world largest producer of diamonds with abundance nature of animal’s wild life, dams, sport or game reserves parks and others sports activities. However, Bot-swana compared to other sub-Saharan African nations has become the best in terms of better effective economic policies it has adopted since its independence (Irwin, 2011). Nonetheless, the strategic location and option of Botswana in do-ing this uniquely has made Botswana to be popularly known by people across
76
the world as one of the top destinations for leisure’s. Its tourism business con-tinues to flourish as it generates lots of revenues for the government outside diamond trading. Other natural resources that Botswana has include copper, nickel, salt, soda ash, silver, coal, iron ore, textiles and agriculture. Since her independence of Botswana in 1966, the country has been sustaining her eco-nomic growth rate as well as maintaining itself as one the highest ecoeco-nomic growth countries in the world (CIA, 2014). In the year 2009 the nation of Bot-swana experienced a negative economic growth that affected and reduced the industrial sectors by 30% because of the global economic meltdown. Therefore, because of these issues it leads to the world reduction of demand in global dia-mond trading. In 2010 the economy quickly recovered with the help of the gov-ernment; through its fiscal discipline and sound management practices was able transformed the economy from a poor country to a middle income country with GDP of $16,800 billion in 2012 and annual growth rate of 5.2% in 2014 (World Bank, 2014). According to CIA, (2014) Botswana has two areas of investment services which make it the best credit risk in Africa. Because of the extraction and mining of diamond account for more than one third of the GDP, meaning 70% to 80% of export income. However, agricultural products like livestock, sorghum, maize, maize, millet, beans, sunflowers and groundnuts but most of the rural dweller are subsistence farmers even though agricultural development is still at its very low level; but key sectors of the economy includes cattle rear-ing, financial services and tourism. However, one of the major issues facing Botswana is the prevalence of HIV/AIDS which poses a greater danger to its people and the economy. Botswana is rated as the second highest in the world as in the population of about 2 million people and 320,000 people are infected with these deadly diseases.
Women in Botswana are not different from other African country: they are traditionally expected to perform household functions, mothering and nursing children, cooking, processing and storing food as well as managing available resources. The Botswana Central Statistic Office, (2009) survey shows that about 56.2% of women are employed in the informal sectors and 40% of woman are self employed and early Tea rates accounts for 28 percent in 2013 and their edu-cational levels were at 30 percent as most female entrepreneurs have secondary and post secondary education (GEM, 2012). Women are represented in their constitutional rights as the same as men. but Brown, (1983) argues that most legal changes concerning women’s rights have not provided the necessary sup-port these women needs; women lack proper economic capacity in taking full advantage of their rights for example single women may be able to have the right to land ownership, but often they lack the resources to make farming val-uable as they tend to have limited means of acquiring machineries for farming.
This section will follow the review in reviewing the common factors influ-encing the performance of female entrepreneurs in Botswana. Although, there is actually less empirical research regarding issues concerning female business-es in Botswana. But in a recent empirical findings by Okurut and Ama, (2013) they described some environmental factors as key factors influencing female
77
SME’s in Botswana. The first factor is ‘’Access to Credit Markets’’ Okurut and Ama, (2013) find out that access to finance and credit is a major factor that con-strained small business owners as well as female entrepreneurs in Botswana.
They emphasized that access to credit market is assumed to be a big constraints for woman and youth entrepreneurs in Botswana. The issue of bank policies regarding loans as one of the factors that constraints many female entrepre-neurs to access loans due to lack of collateral, such as land and properties which are mostly owned by men. They also noted that the government policy to ad-dress these financial constraint for female entrepreneurs and youths through its policies, as funding of these body in charge of female is also a major issue as requirement for obtaining loans are still very difficult for most female entrepre-neurs in Botswana.
The second factor is found to affect female entrepreneurs in Botswana is
‘’Capacity or Skill constraints (capacity building) Okurut & Ama, (2013) argued that lack of skills or inefficient capacity building is a major problem facing most female entrepreneurs in Botswana. They describe capacity building as an inte-gral aspect of entrepreneur’s development. They pointed out five training areas that can be useful to woman, such as marketing skills, bookkeeping, job training, managerial skill and technical skills. In essence, these skills can help female en-trepreneurs to add more value and success in her business.
The third factor is ‘’Governmental Regulations’’ Okurut & Ama, (2013);
government regulations poses a big treat to most female entrepreneurs in Bot-swana for instance in obtaining trading licenses, women are discovered to have major challenges in obtaining a license: and this has been blamed as a result of the processes and procedures for taking too longtime in getting these licenses for instance acquisition of trading license seem to be a major problem leading to female entrepreneurs inability to secure loan from the bank since trading li-cense is one of the requirement for obtaining of a loan.
In conclusion on this subsection, the analyzed papers in Botswana high-lighted some important changes on the side of the government in helping FE’s in Botswana. Also programs are tailored with the help of local enterprise au-thority in providing the needed capacity training to entrepreneurs. However, female entrepreneurs still lack the needed training required to boast there busi-ness and enable them manage their busibusi-ness effectively. Finally, the major fac-tors facing female entrepreneurs in Botswana are varied among environmental factors. For example, market constraint has been described by Okurut & Ama, (2013) as obstacle to female entrepreneurs in Botswana such as nonpayment of goods and services supplied on credit and high competition for woman to re-main in market to compete within rivals. They must improve their product quality and be innovative. However, nonpayment for supplied product can af-fect female entrepreneur’s business performance and growth and can cause a business closure.
78