03 May 2018

Youth Alive Foundation held its annual interactive engagement where industry experts and entrepreneurs discussed issues that contribute to the entrepreneurial development of youth.

Giving a keynote address, deputy permanent secretary, corporate services in the Ministry of Youth Empowerment, Sport and Culture Development, Mr Peter Mongwaketse said crowd funding was becoming popular as an investment trend for both entrepreneurs and investors.

He said the model had proven itself to be a successful alternative to acquiring or investing money.

“It also provides a convenient and exciting alternative of obtaining an investment or finding a new venture,” he said.

Mr Mongwaketse further said government continued to support as a matter of priority the youth through affirmative action and youth exemptions.

He cited the approval of a 50 per cent charge on youth procurement of tender documents and for youth owned companies for PPADB registration, reservation on micro procurement where 20 per cent quota is reserved for youth as some of the things government introduced to support youth businesses.

In addition, he said despite all the initiatives by government the problem of unemployment among the youth continued to be of great concern hence the President had committed to prioritising it.

“Let us come together and find innovative ways to create long term solutions to this problem as government alone cannot do it,” he said.

The Youth Alive seminar aims at unpacking the topic of crowd funding which offers an opportunity to the great business ideas that the young people had.

“I urge you all to come up with innovative ideas of how you can find other alternative ways of sourcing funding for your businesses and or investments,” he said.

He furthermore said in more prominent markets, crowd funding was fast gaining momentum in fuelling economic growth, creating jobs and building communities.

For his part, Global Business speaker, Mr Vusi Thembekwayo said youth in Botswana should find ways on how they could raise funds by thinking outside the box and doing business not only for money but for the benefit of others.

“Look for a problem, find a gap in the market, find a solution to address that, convince the investor that your idea will not only benefit you but him and others,” he said.

Crowd funding has been described as a team work effort and that before one chooses that route they have to share values, ideas and expectations.

Motivational speaker, Mr Boago Ramogapi said, “Until we understand the motive and the purpose of why we are in a team, we will just be moving in circles and achieving nothing.”

Mr Ramogapi stated that there was need to build structures that would leave a mark to be seen by great grandchildren.

He said without transparency, trust would suffer, hence the need to encourage partners not to hide anything from team members so as to avoid teams breaking up.

“Transparency must be the backbone of the team, it affects the members’ level of output,” he said.

Youth Alive Foundation president, Mr Taokhoma Jabu said through the seminar, they wanted to build entrepreneurs who could compete globally and help fight unemployment and finally eliminate poverty.

The seminar was held under the theme, ‘Unlocking opportunities conferred in crowd funding; the mantra key to creating awareness and alternatives to acquiring and/or investing funds’. ENDS