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New textile & clothing association formed in Botswana
10 Oct '14
2 min read
Botswana Textile and Clothing Association (BTCA) has been formed by the textile and clothing businesses in Gaborone, in the Southern African country of Botswana to enhance the textile industry’s growth and sustainability, Botswana Daily News reported.
BTCA plans to help local companies with routine challenges, including accessing funds from financial institutions, and will work toward improving the capacity of Botswana’s apparel industry. The association will direct most of its efforts to better equip companies to take advantage of United States Growth and Opportunity Act (AGOA) and to boost the textile sector’s efforts to fully utilize duty-free incentives under the AGOA.
The president of BTCA Shahid Ghafoor, talking to Botswana Daily News, said that the association would further assist the textile sector to increase domestic, regional, and international markets share for Botswana textile and clothing in addition to increasing innovation and creativity among its members.
In its efforts to help local companies sustain themselves in a highly competitive global market environment, BTCA will engage in technology advancing where companies will be capacitated on the benefit of using modern technology for efficiency and economies of scale production, he said.
Ghafoor said that BTCA will promote entrepreneurship in the industry as well as assist clothing businesses in accessing finance from financial institutions and other sources. Botswana’s clothing and textile sector has failed to take full advantage of AGOA, struggling to make export sales to the competitive and demanding US market, he added.
He noted that the cost of logistics is high in Botswana, making it difficult for companies to import raw materials and export finished product.
The textile industry faces so many challenges in its day to day running and these include customs procedures where South African Revenue Service (SARS) does not recognise the Botswana Revenue Service (BURS)’s seal as mentioned by one of the exporters, he said.
Ghafoor mentioned that another issue is the high cost of utilities which affects competitiveness. He further said delayed payments when dealing with AGOA also creates cash flow problems for exporting companies. (GK)
BTCA plans to help local companies with routine challenges, including accessing funds from financial institutions, and will work toward improving the capacity of Botswana’s apparel industry. The association will direct most of its efforts to better equip companies to take advantage of United States Growth and Opportunity Act (AGOA) and to boost the textile sector’s efforts to fully utilize duty-free incentives under the AGOA.
The president of BTCA Shahid Ghafoor, talking to Botswana Daily News, said that the association would further assist the textile sector to increase domestic, regional, and international markets share for Botswana textile and clothing in addition to increasing innovation and creativity among its members.
In its efforts to help local companies sustain themselves in a highly competitive global market environment, BTCA will engage in technology advancing where companies will be capacitated on the benefit of using modern technology for efficiency and economies of scale production, he said.
Ghafoor said that BTCA will promote entrepreneurship in the industry as well as assist clothing businesses in accessing finance from financial institutions and other sources. Botswana’s clothing and textile sector has failed to take full advantage of AGOA, struggling to make export sales to the competitive and demanding US market, he added.
He noted that the cost of logistics is high in Botswana, making it difficult for companies to import raw materials and export finished product.
The textile industry faces so many challenges in its day to day running and these include customs procedures where South African Revenue Service (SARS) does not recognise the Botswana Revenue Service (BURS)’s seal as mentioned by one of the exporters, he said.
Ghafoor mentioned that another issue is the high cost of utilities which affects competitiveness. He further said delayed payments when dealing with AGOA also creates cash flow problems for exporting companies. (GK)
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