Local chalk manufacturer eyes African market
Je Me Presente, a chalk producing company that has been in operation for a year and has ambitions to position the country, as a chalk production hub, hopes to reduce unemployment figures. “Our plan is to supply the whole country and eventually the entire continent of Africa. We want to become Africa’s hub of chalk production so that someone in Malawi or Kenya will know that chalk is made in Botswana,” said Maipelo Tshoso, Je Me Presente, Director. Presently, the company produces 20 000 boxes per week on request and has plan to increase to at least 100 000 per day. “We are working on developing a plant that will operate on a shift basis that will supply the entire continent,” said Tshoso, highlighting that the company’s current market is mostly private schools in and around Gaborone. In addition, the business supplies to some stationary shops in the northern part of the country. Quizzed why the company is not utilising the Economic Diversification Drive (EDD) programme, Tshoso said the company came into existence when government tenders were already running in the previous year. She is however optimistic that the company will benefit from EDD, this year. Produced from gypsum, the dustless and non toxic chalk, production at Je Me Presente has other by-products which are manure and a cleaning chemical that gives white shoes their original colour. Gypsum is a soft sulphate mineral composed of calcium sulphate dihydrate, with the chemical formula, widely mined and used as a fertilizer and as the main constituent in many forms of plaster, blackboard chalk and wallboard. Tshoso said the company’s most pressing challenge at the moment is distribution, especially to school in the remote part of the country.“Our product is mostly used in rural Botswana and reaching such areas can be quite challenging for a start-up but we do try,” said Tshoso. Despite competition from large retailers that source chalk from outside the country, Tshoso hopes legislation would soon encourage the retailers to source local products.