Rural Industries Promotions Company (Botswana) [RIPCO (B)], recently installed ACCPAC Advantage Series Enterprise Edition accounting software to manage the financial accounting and reporting requirements of its widespread and rapidly expanding operations. The solution installation was designed, managed and implemented by Lorge, the national and international ACCPAC accounting software reseller and solutions provider.
RIPCO (B) provides technology and services to support industrial, agricultural and entrepreneurial development in Botswana with the ultimate aim of raising the overall socio-economic status of rural communities and SMMEs.
The Rural Industries Innovation Centre (RIIC) is the National Appropriate Technology Development and Dissemination Centre situated in Kanye, about 100km southwest of Gaborone. Two commercial subsidiaries operated by RIPCO (B) are the Pioneer Rural Industries Centre in Palapye and the Baralong Farms Service Centre at Goodhope.
The new ACCPAC system implemented at RIPCO (B) is Windows-based and is made up of modules that provide general ledger, accounts payable, accounts receivable, cash book, inventory control, purchase orders, inter-company transactions and fixed assets.
Lorge Botswana branch manager Jurgens Snyman says the RIPCO (B) computer system file server is located at Kanye, the operational centre for the company, while the head office is at Gaborone.
"A wide area network (WAN) is operated using a dedicated telephone line and the various company operations in the different centres have remote access to the ACCPAC system, which ensures standardised accounting sets and financial reporting throughout the organisation."
Among RIPCO (B)`s achievements are the design and outsourced contract manufacture of a wide range of agricultural equipment, including threshers, de-hullers, shellers, hammermills, animal feed mixers, poultry heating systems and dip-tanks. On the commercial side it has designed and developed the sorghum milling package, solar energy technology and wood-fired technology for rural baking and cooking, as well as water treatment and biogas technology, hand/wind pumping systems and wetland development systems.
The manufacture of the ovens, cookers, wind pumping equipment and the civil engineering aspects of the wetland development systems is also outsourced to local contractors.
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