25 Apr 2019

University Challenge project, which is a collaborative effort between Citizen Entrepreneurial Development Agency (CEDA) and the Development Bank of Southern Africa, has given youth an opportunity to find practical solutions in addressing Botswana’s unemployment challenges.

Speaking at the University Challenge press launch on April 24, marketing and communications manager at CEDA Ms Anno Tshipa said  during its inception in 2016,  a challenge was thrown out to Botswana youth to come up with solutions to long standing problems that the country was facing such as unemployment.

She said the objectives of the challenge were to inspire youth to own the solutions that they come up with, and also to strengthen the country’s ecosystem by innovation from the youth.

Ms Tshipa said for the past two years, the challenge was won by males, adding that the 2019 prize money was P300 000, with an extra P50 000 if the winner is female.

She said that was meant to promote women empowerment, adding that during the past challenges, men were pushing the envelope given that they were not looking at the projects that were already in place.

“They were looking at unearthed avenues and we had somebody who had presented a solution to develop a life-saver jacket. When you are in Botswana where we do not have a lot of water points, it is not an obvious solution, but this is somebody who is thinking far and beyond,” she said.

Furthermore, she said this year they received more applications than last year.

Ms Tshipa said through another partnership that CEDA was doing with the Tony Elumelu Foundation, Botswana received 66 applications ahead of South Africa.

“Mind you Botswana had started late in terms of entering the competition based on the compilation when applications were received,” she said.

She said that alone was a clear sign that there was hunger among the youth for these kinds of activities, adding that expectation was that in the coming year, they would have more numbers showing interest.

The 2018 winner, Mr Samuel Ntshiwa said he had registered his company, adding that he was currently under the mentorship programme.

He said he benefited a lot after winning the challenge in terms of networking and skills acquisition.

He said his project was fish farming and he was still waiting for a licence from government, revealing that his desire was to start operations before summer. ENDS