28 Aug 2016

Okavango Diamond Company (ODC) is a 100 per cent owned government company whose objectives are to provide government with a direct commercial route to market for a portion of

Botswana's diamonds and provide insight into market prices and trends to support strategic decision making.

Speaking during the Okavango Diamond Youth entrepreneurship launch, the deputy managing director of Okavango Diamond Company, Mr Markus ter Haar said  as a local company, they have a responsibility of giving back to the community and they have introduced a programme in which the youth will be offered entrepreneurial development training, offer Batswana aged between 18 to 35 a youth entrepreneur programme by exposing them to the diamond value chain and also equip them with the skills to complete a business plan which could  be used to establish their businesses.

He noted that a total of 250 youth applied for this programme and out of this number only 10 applicants were successful. He explained that there will be a one week Diamond Foundation Seminar by World manufacturers Botswana which will be delivered through industry presentations and tours.

He further said that Botswana General Certificate of Secondary Education was considered as the minimum level of education as they did not want to exclude anyone and as a result a lot of youth had an opportunity to apply.

For her part, the stakeholder relations executive, Ms Kutlo Thathana said that the applicants had to state what they wanted to do as entrepreneurs and it was one of the questions that many participants failed to answer.

It was not about the qualification but about the attitude of those aspiring entrepreneurs. ENDS