15 Dec 2016

A Junior Achievement Botswana (JAB) team represented by four Naledi Senior school students has won a regional company of the year Citi Clients award for the Junior Achievement Africa region competition in Zimbabwe.

The Birds Nest Company led by Gift Senne, Tebogo Kebabope, Sebaga Manyepetsa and Patience Ntlogelang project, a bird release display service won them a trophy and four Samsung Galaxy tablets each.

During the appreciation ceremony in Gaborone JAB executive director, Ms Tshidi Tlhong praised the young innovators for their achievement.
Ms Tlhong explained that even though they did not finish or attain podium position, their award twas worth celebrating.

She revealed to the parents that it was not an easy competition, because they were competing against 12 other companies from Africa.

“There were only two companies which provided services, while the other 10 brought products.  We have realised that products are easy to appeal to judges unlike service providers,” she explained.

Therefore, Ms Tlhong said it was not going to be an easy thing for them to secure a podium position.

However she applauded the young team stating that it was brave and innovative for them to come up with something different.

She was of the view that manufacturing was important in developing a sustainable economy; although Botswana has a challenge of importing raw but said ‘service providing is the ultimate solution to the challenge.’

Ms Tlhong said with service providing, people could use indigenous materials therefore help diversify the economy, citing what The Birds Nest company had done as a matching example to what Botswana needs.

“We are proud that our company won Citi Clients award of the year, the award recognises the best customer care focused company,” she added.

She praised the Ministry of Basic Education for affording them a chance to participate despite monetary constraints.

For his part, director in the Ministry of Basic Education, Mr Ndondo Keolese said the most important thing about the trip was that they managed to meddle with other African young aspiring entrepreneurs.

He encouraged them to use the contacts to broaden their business, and put their experiences to good use.

Mr Keolese also applauded the work done by JAB, adding that it was through JAB now that this young team while still at school has a proper vision of where they wish to go.

Parents were also encouraged to keep supporting them, since now they had shown they have that business acumen.

Furthermore, Mr Keolese revealed that their relationship with JAB came from a long way and had planned to keep it for better achievements.

He said JAB is aligned to their multiple pathways education system, which seeks to help training school going children in order to help them choose their career path by the time they reach tertiary schools. ENDS