20 Feb 2018

Research and innovation can help unlock potential in the economy and create more jobs, the Minister of Tertiary Education, Research, Science and Technology, (MTERST) Dr Alfred Madigele has said.

Speaking at the end of a week-long Roadshow in Molapowabojang, Dr Madigele,  MP for Mmathethe/Molapowabojang constituency said research needed to continuously seek solutions to current societal challenges.

He expressed the need to harness available knowledge and technologies for the betterment of people’s lives, using research and innovation to help the country fight poverty and unemployment.

He said innovation was one of the key drivers of economic growth in developed countries, saying, ‘we need to integrate research and innovation in the way we do things and should be used to take Batswana out of poverty, making job creation a number one priority’.

He said government encourages research and innovation and has created the responsible ministry as a way to promote a culture of research and innovation in pursuit of a knowledge-based society, and as such government was committed to investing a sizeable amount of public funds to educate, train, empower and up-skill the nation in specialised skills and abilities to help grow the economy.

Dr Madigele said research and innovation were critical tenets in the Ministry of Tertiary Education, Research, Science and Technology and were also the goals of the government to ensure that peoples’ lives were improved.

He further said it was the objective of the ministry to unearth natural talents in youth, encouraging them to focus mainly in learning for jobs such as mechanics, plumbing, carpentry and sewing rather than depending on academic achievement.

Earlier, Molapowabojang’s Kgosi Kedirile Letshabo thanked the area MP for disseminating information about his ministry.

Organisations that participated in the roadshow are Botswana International University of Science and Technology, Department of Tertiary Education Fund, Botswana Open University, Human Resource Development Council, Botswana Qualification   Authority and Radiation Protection Inspectorate. Ends