THE Botswana government launched a new loan guarantee scheme for entrepreneurs who want to start small businesses on Thursday. Permanent secretary in the Finance and Development Planning ministry, Serwalo Tumelo, said citizens and citizen-owned companies will be able to use the scheme to borrow from commercial banks with the government providing partial security. Tumelo said the government was looking to the further development of the private sector to fuel economic growth. Loans, however, will not be automatic. Projects must be bankable and will be evaluated by the banks using normal lending criteria. Loans can be from 10,000 to 250,000 pula repayable in up to five years, at four points above prime. The borrower will have to provide only 60 to 80 percent of the normal security. Operations must plan to employ less than 100 people and turn over less than five million pula each year. The scheme has the support of Botswana’s four commercial banks and the National Development Bank (NDB).