22 Apr 2015

When the Ministry of Youth, Sports and Culture introduced the Youth Development Fund (YDF), some youth became reluctant while others grabbed the opportunity with both hands.

But a young entrepreneur used the opportunity and satisfied the need to start up her own business.

The 31-year-old Serowe born entrepreneur, Ms Kegalale Raboijane is now making a sustainable living out of a butchery business at Area W shops in Francistown. In an interview recently, Ms Raboijane said she came to the second city to look for greener pastures after completing her Form 5.

She stayed with her sister and found a job as a shop cashier from 2011 up until 2012 when she heard about the grant provided by the government for the youth.“I went to the ministry and applied but my application was not successful but this did not hinder me from striving hard,” she mentioned.

Ms Raboijane said she was later called to come and fill the space of the successful candidate who had later shown no interest. She said because she had shown signs of passion for the programme, she was later enrolled with others to go for training at Kang.

They were trained on business management and were awarded with participation certificate upon completion. After completing, she was employed on a temporary basis at the Nyangabwe Referral Hospital under the maintenance department as an Assistant.

While on duty one day, she received a message in her phone from the ministry informing her that they should apply for the youth grant. “I submitted my forms and after three months I was called for an oral interview to explain to the board about my business proposal and after a month my application was approved and granted P100 000.”

That is when she started opening business bank accounts and she said she just knew that this was the start of it all. The entrepreneur said she started operating her business in July 2014 despite the fact that she had to go through difficulties.

One of these were that the potential place she wanted to rent was initially a bar, hence she was forced to convert it to a butchery, which meant more work had to be done. She said the business has been doing well and she also supplies those who sell fast food at the bus rank.

She is now able to take care of her family but she also faces challenges such as the recent closure of the Botswana Meat Commission (BMC). Most of her profits are spent on transport to go to other abattoirs, causing a financial strain to her business.

She said she is grateful to her sister who was always there to motivate her to strive high as well as the ministry for helping to improve her lifestyle as well as the business landlord. Ms Raboijane wants to be a living example of YDF and she also wants to start processing her own meat products.

“I want to encourage the youth to go out and use the opportunities put before them by the government and to avoid indulging in bad habits,” said Mr Raboijane. Ends