04 Dec 2016

As unemployment among the youth continues to pose challenges, the youth in Shoshong have decided to take the bull by the horns and form a business council to advocate for youth entrepreneurship in government.

The council, named Shoshong Youth Business Council (SYBC) was formed to facilitate an enabling environment for the development and prosperity of young entrepreneurs through research, networking and advocacy in the Shoshong constituency.

The council was launched at the Shoshong Constituency Investment promotion show recently.

In an interview with BOPA recently, SYBC director Mr Joshua Gadise said this was a platform for youth business development that looks into supporting established and growing youth owned businesses by connecting them to the right people and through a range of business services and events.

Mr Gadise explained that their mission is to create competitive advantage for youth-owned businesses by advocating pro-business policies, to deliver innovative programmes and to create a positive and an enabling environment for youth owned businesses and for economic growth.

Mr Gadise said the core business of the council is to attract and retain members, develop solutions to challenges facing youth owned businesses in the constituency and to plan and implement major events to engage members in growth industries among others.

Further, he said at the moment they have more than 20 members but they look to register more as time goes on because the council was still at its infancy stage.

‘Members of SYBC enjoy individual and collective approaches to advisers and decision makers in procurement issues and they also get opportunities to connect peers to exchange information and knowledge, share best practices and generate new ideas in various entrepreneurial sectors,’ he said.

Asked on the council’s trade mission, Mr Gadise said they organise such mission with the aim of exposing members to actual market conditions in which members will participate in sharing ideas that can uplift their business links.

He also said they promote their members’ participation in trade fairs and exhibitions to help them to establish contacts with potential buyers, sellers and investors.

He said although they are yet to apply for accreditation from Business Botswana, they have set up a committee only on an interim basis and also look to continue with their principal core business of advocating for youth businesses in the constituency while awaiting accreditation.

He added that they are yet to engage all youth businesses in all the villages in the Shoshong constituency but it is a dream in the pipeline to do so. ENDS