16 Oct 2017

Assistant Minister of Tertiary Education, Research, Science and Technology Mr Fidelis Molao recently visited San Francisco in the United States of America at the invitation of Stanford University and Silicon Valley.
A press release from the ministry states that during the five-day trip, Mr Molao had the opportunity to experience ground breaking and innovative youth entrepreneurial programmes that will be launched in Botswana in 2018.

“The De Beers Group of Companies and Botswana Innovation Hub have partnered with Stanford University to deliver two ground-breaking leadership development programmes targeted at early stage entrepreneurs and senior leadership in Botswana and the SADC region,” states the release.
It further states that P30 million investment by De Beers aims to contribute towards Vision 2036 by assisting Botswana as the Innovation Hub for capacitation of early age and senior business leaders in the SADC region.
The release explains that the partnership will see the two programmes launch in 2018 and are expected to run for three years.

The Stanford ‘Go to Market’ Programme is a one-week entrepreneurship camp, taught by Stanford Graduate School of Business faculty. It will help youth entrepreneurs gain the confidence and skills to commercialise their business ideas and accelerate their route to market.
“Initially running in Botswana, the programme will potentially be expanded to include participants from Namibia and South Africa once fully established.”

It says the Stanford Seed Transformation Programme is a year-long leadership course, taught by Stanford Graduate School of Business faculty (who are successful entrepreneurs in their own right) and Seed-trained local facilitators.
“It will provide management training and a networking support to assist Southern African business leaders in growing their businesses, creating job growth and helping to lead their regions to greater prosperity,” it states.

The press release says the programme aims at supporting CEOs and senior leadership to adopt new strategies, receive management training and attain networking support towards business growth and profitability.
It explains that upon completion of these programmes, youth entrepreneur participants should have developed the skills, tools, and mindset to grow and scale their business, create jobs, and lead their enterprise to greater prosperity.
Mr Molao was with the Minister of Youth Empowerment, Sport and Culture Development Mr Thapelo Olopeng and they were expected back in the country on Saturday. ENDS