A Visionary Leadership Conversation with Mr. Khalala Mokefane, Caretaker Chief Executive Officer, Citizen Entrepreneurial Development Agency (CEDA)

Introduction

Botswana’s story has always been a story of belief; belief in people, in stability, and in the idea that a nation’s greatest wealth lies in its citizens. At the heart of that belief stands the Citizen Entrepreneurial Development Agency (CEDA): a financial institution founded not merely to fund enterprises, but to empower a national imagination.

Under the stewardship of Mr. Khalala Mokefane, CEDA is evolving from a traditional lender into a modern engine of citizen capitalism, a platform that enables ordinary Batswana to become extraordinary builders of the economy. His leadership is grounded in a simple but powerful conviction: that public capital must do more than circulate, it must transform.

Reimagining the Mandate

From the moment he took office, Mr. Mokefane set out to restore CEDA’s founding spirit: courage, access, and accountability. He sees entrepreneurship not as an economic programme, but as a national development strategy: a means of broadening participation, deepening resilience, and building shared prosperity.

CEDA’s purpose, he explains, is no longer defined by how many loans it disburses, but by how many livelihoods it unlocks. “Our success must be measured not in balance sheets,” he says, “but in the dignity and independence of those we empower.

“CEDA was never meant to fund business as usual. It was meant to fund the future.”

— Khalala Mokefane

Evolving for a New Generation

The face of entrepreneurship is changing. Today’s Motswana entrepreneur is younger, digitally fluent, and impatient for impact. To meet this shift, CEDA is re-engineering its systems around three imperatives:

1. Speed: Digitising processes to accelerate funding access and reduce turnaround time.
2. Relevance: Designing financial instruments that reflect emerging industries, from agritech and renewables to the creative economy.
3. Support: Providing mentorship, market linkages, and post-funding guidance that turn ideas into enterprises.

“Our entrepreneurs need more than capital,” Mokefane notes. “They need confidence, context, and connection. That’s how ecosystems are born.”

Trust as Capital

At the core of CEDA’s transformation is an insight as old as enterprise itself: trust is the first currency. “When a young person applies for funding,” he reflects, “they’re not just asking for money, they’re asking someone to believe in their idea.”

To institutionalise that belief, CEDA is constantly enhancing process efficiency. The objective is to have faster decisions, and deeper accountability; an ecosystem where public finance becomes an act of public faith.

Building Ecosystems, Not Silos

Mokefane insists that financing alone cannot sustain entrepreneurship. “Our work doesn’t end when a loan is approved, it begins there,” he says.

CEDA’s partnerships with such stakeholders as the Local Enterprise Authority and other players, are building a continuum of support, from start-up incubation to export-ready growth. The ambition is clear: to encourage interconnected value chains that create jobs, drive exports, and multiply national resilience.

Funding the Future, Not the Familiar

Every economy has its comfort zones. Botswana’s next chapter, Mokefane believes, depends on funding what’s next. He points to three frontiers of promise:

• The Creative Economy: transforming talent into trade.
• Green Energy & Sustainability: aligning finance with climate responsibility.
• Technology & Digital Services: enabling inclusion through innovation.

“Every successful economy bets on its own imagination,” he says. “Our job is to fund that imagination responsibly, with courage, discipline, and vision.”

Accountability as Public Value

Growth without integrity is unsustainable. CEDA has introduced enhanced governance frameworks and impact-tracking systems that measure more than repayment; they measure public value.

“Every pula we lend must create value that outlives the loan,” Mokefane affirms.

These reforms ensure that CEDA remains a model of fiscal prudence and developmental purpose, a national asset operating with private-sector efficiency and public-sector conscience.

Vision 2040: The Legacy of Empowerment

When asked how he hopes CEDA will be remembered by 2040, Mokefane’s answer is disarmingly human: “That CEDA made citizens believe in themselves again.”

He imagines a Botswana where entrepreneurship is not an exception but an expectation; where every citizen, regardless of background, sees enterprise as a legitimate path to prosperity. In that future, CEDA is not a gatekeeper but a national enabler, a bridge between potential and progress.

Closing Reflection

Leadership, at its best, is architecture; the quiet design of systems that outlive their builders. Mr. Khalala Mokefane is part of a new generation of public leaders redefining that architecture: less bureaucracy, more belief; less process, more purpose.

Under his guidance, CEDA is not merely financing businesses. It is financing belief itself — the truest currency of a nation’s future.