10 Apr 2019

Ministry of Youth Empowerment, Sport and Culture Development (MYSC), in collaboration with Botswana International University of Science and Technology (BIUST), recently engaged youth from Palapye in a ‘Sustaining Your Business Course’.

The six-week course, which was conducted by BIUST and funded by MYSC, was attended by 46 youths, including some youth officers from MYSC in Palapye and five BIUST students.

The course included inducting beneficiaries in managerial operations, human resource management, managing business finance, record keeping and marketing of goods and services, among other basic business skills.

Speaking at the graduation ceremony, Minister of Youth Empowerment, Sport and Culture Development, Mr Tshekedi Khama said he was pleased that his ministry and BIUST were doing their best to equip the youth with entrepreneurship skills.

He said thus youth would be able to run their businesses efficiently and effectively and also create employment for other youths in the country.

Mr Khama explained that to date, BIUST had trained two groups of YDF beneficiaries on behalf of his ministry.

He said last year in June, 40 youth entrepreneurs who were funded through the YDF programme graduated from the ‘Sustaining Your Business Course’.

He said it was important that the two continue to collaborate, not only to train the youth, but to also build the professional competence of the YDF programme officers in the sub-district so that they can better assess submitted business plans, mentor beneficiaries and monitor their business operations in the field.

He said other sub-districts would benchmark from Palapye.

Mr Khama said his ministry had the responsibility to implement initiatives that promoted the active participation of young people in the country’s economic development, diversification and growth.

“We do not take these responsibilities lightly and this is why we have strategic partnerships with organisations such as BIUST to ensure we fulfill our youth empowerment mandate,” he said.

For his part, BIUST Vice Chancellor, Professor Otlogetswe Totolo said those graduating bore testimony to BIUST’s relentless pursuit to be of relevance to its locality and to be a worthy citizen of Palapye.

He said through the BIUST and MSYC collaboration, the empowerment and up-skilling of youth and young entrepreneurs, who may not have been able to make it to higher learning institutions or BIUST, had the opportunity to learn business issues, run their own projects and create employment for others.

He said this was a step in the right direction in moving this country from a resource based to a knowledge based economy.

During the ceremony, MYSC permanent Secretary Mr Kago Ramokate and Professor Totolo exchanged Memorandum of Understanding files to seal their collaboration in up-skilling and empowering the youth.

The ceremony was also attended by Member of Parliament for Palapye, Mr Moiseraele Goya, Kgosi Masego Olebile, academics and senior government officials. ENDS