10/10/2025
TENDERING PROCESS
SFMConsultBw
Understanding abbreviations;
C**A – Companies and Intellectual Property Authority (+267 367 3700 )
BURS – Botswana Unified Revenue Services (+267 363 8000 )
PPRA- Public Procurement Regulatory Authority ‘’ formally known as PPADB ‘’ ( +267 360 2000)
EDD – Economic Diversification Drive
LPS – Local Procurement Scheme
RFQ – Request for quotation
GPO – Government Purchase Order
Important document
- Certification of incorporation
- Tax clearance
- PPRA Codes
- Trade license
- Share certificate
- EDD certificate
Tendering is one of the businesses one can venture in as part of creating another source of income or diversifying their portfolio investment. Some people are full-time tenderprenuers, others prefer to do it part-time, but it all depends on who you are, your big why, and most importantly your investment objective. Tendering industry is regarded as the most corrupt industry in Botswana, I don’t have facts with me but what I know is that it is a very competitive industry and capital is intense especially when you start. I will elaborate on what you can do if you don’t have money to finance a tender that you fairly won.
What do I need to tender in Botswana?
a) Registration of a company
First things first, you need a legally registered company. My advice to many is always that you must have both a company and a business. To register your company and your business you will have to approach C**A, C**A is located in CBD or you can do the process online. The process is that you reserve a name (P20.00) after approval or correction you proceed to register, P350.00 for the company and P150.00 (if things have not changed). After the registration, you have a legally operating company, and your documents will be there on your dashboard to download (certification of incorporation).
b) Company Secretary
Now you have a registered company, you will need to appoint a company secretary to help you with other documents or you can let them do all the processes for you. A company secretary will help you with documents to open a bank account for your company and do get a tax clearance at BURS – Botswana Unified Revenue Services, they can even help with your annual returns. People think company secretaries are not important just because they can do other things for themselves, well I disagree, they are there for a purpose and I wish we can all use them. You will now have a legally registered company and a business with a bank account, a company secretary, and tax clearance. Are you ready to tender? Not yet.
c) PPARA Codes
Most importantly, you will need to add or register some PPARA codes to your company because most if not all government tender needs PPARA codes. Codes are different for different industries, eg. We have codes in general supplies, we have codes in media, we have codes in engineering, we have codes in health, we have codes in manufacturing, etc. So for every tender that you bid for, you must have that code under your company. The reason why you can see sometimes EL KWAPA POULTRY (PTY) LTD contracting a bridge is that it has codes in contraction and engineering ( I don’t really encourage this, we must learn how to name companies and businesses). You must also note that you can’t bid for a tender that requires codes while wena you have none.
d) Trading licensees
Licenses in tendering are very important, imagine if everyone could operate his or her own business without a license, and imagine if I was to supply explosions without a license, obviously I could be a danger to others, I should be guided, regulated, and licensed. Trading licenses are done at councils, you can also get an agent to help you with this process.
e) The process of tendering
Provided you have all the documents with you and your fit the bid or respond to a tender, government tenders are advertised on the government gazette which is released every week. You will have to subscribe or buy that gazette at government printers if mistaken.
To take part in a tender, you will first have to buy a tender document from a particular depart or wherever they mentioned on the gazette, if you are a youth, normally they will say 50% off the price. It is very important that you read and understand what is needed from you before compiling the tender and submission. There are processes of rfq, pricing, site visits, etc you can make more research on that.
Tips
1. Go through a tender document meticulously
2. Be aware of sites visits
3. Be alert to due dates
4. Check for certification
5. Bind your documents
6. Price carefully and correctly (don’t overdo it or underdo it )
7. Do not entirely depends on tenders
I hope and believe that this basic knowledge will help someone out there, I am not an expert on this field but I regard this information as more valuable. If you are an expert, add what I left out, correct or subtract for the benefit of all.
