23 Aug 2017

Ministry of Infrastructure and Housing Development has invested heavily in ensuring that Batswana youth entrepreneurs are empowered in the construction industry.

Ms Kgadimo Thutlwe, principal youth officer in the ministry, revealed this during an interview with BOPA.

Ms Thutlwe said that over an eight-year period, her ministry had managed to create a database of youth entrepreneurs and empower them through education and training as well as job reservations.

“Our programme started in April 2009, with the ministry making an announcement through the Daily News for youth contractors to start the registration process in the ministry in order to create a database.

The registration is continuous and we currently have 464 registered youth contractors,” Ms Thutlwe said. The database also includes individuals with vocational skills in the construction industry, with 1314 youth already registered.

“We started with 68 registered companies after our initial meeting with the youth contractors at the Botswana Youth Centre “Mma Masire” facility in Gaborone West in May 2009, and we have grown our database.

They told us then that they were struggling to win tenders, and were competing with bigger, more established companies. We then came up with programmes to empower them,” Ms Thutlwe said.

The ministry, which handles construction projects on behalf of other government ministries, has reserved 15 per cent of building maintenance projects for youth contractors.

One of the beneficiaries, Mr Benjamin Kontle, the director of Ben K Crane Hire Company, said he was one of the first group of youth who gathered at the Mma Masire centre in 2009.

“I had always wanted to become an entrepreneur. I started out running a tuck shop, and then studied for a diploma, before working as an intern in a mine. I then registered a company which initially engaged in the maintenance of minor building works, in the electric field,” Mr Kontle said.

From handling 20 staff houses being maintained in Kanye in his first tender, Mr Kontle was able to grow his company to a higher-grade business that is able to handle general maintenance works and is able to compete with larger firms.

Another youth entrepreneur, Mr Thapelo Monyere of Kingdom of Light Investments said that after working in the construction industry, he decided to establish his own company.“I started in January 2015 when I founded the company which is engaged in building construction property maintenance and project management consultancy,” he said. ENDS