12 Jul 2017

Academicians have been challenged to break down walls between the academia, the public and private sector.

Botswana Investment and Trade Centre (BITC) chief executive officer, Ms Bame Moremong made the call at this year’s international conference of business innovation and growth in Kasane on Tuesday.

“My plea, therefore, is that these discussions, and academic papers are brought to the fore, and that they are discussed, distributed and debated in public fora,” she stated.

Ms Moremong noted that academic assertions and theories made their way into boardrooms and not the hands of the implementers.

“The brains are in here but we have the implementers out there, how do we bridge the gap?” she asked.

The academia, she said, could be intimidating for the average person. She emphasised on the need for more accessibility and partnership with the public and private sector.

The University of Botswana, Ms Moremong noted, had the ability to direct the discourse and provide the platform to not only prepare future leaders for the road ahead, but also to entrench key nation building ideologies that would see Botswana’s future leaders carry the country forward with pride.

Hosted by the University of Botswana, the objective of the platform was to bring together academics, government policy makers, business entrepreneurs and top management practitioners from all over the world to discuss challenges of attracting, establishing and managing businesses within a globalised world.

Professor Motsumi Marobela of the University of Botswana said doors to public and private sector engagements remained closed for the academia.

“We are often turned town by the private sector when we ask for engagement with them, and see them proceed to engage external consultants at hefty fees whilst we are here,” he said.

He said as an institution of learning, they were open to public engagements, but were often disappointed that their own alumni shunned them when they joined the private sector.

He, however, acknowledged the fruitful collaboration that exists between BITC and their marketing department at the University of Botswana in areas of research and curriculum improvement.

The conference was organised around 11 themes including management and organisation, tourism, hospitality and events management. ENDS