30 May 2019

Botswana will soon have a national entrepreneurship policy to address some of the many challenges that impede the development of an entrepreneurship culture in the country.

According to the permanent secretary in the Ministry of Investment, Trade and Industry Ms Peggy Serame, the policy, which is currently being finalised, is expected to be approved by Parliament before the end of the year.

Ms Serame, who was speaking at a public forum organised by the University of Botswana (UB) on Tuesday, said the poor entrepreneurship culture among Batswana had compelled government to consider several ways through which the status quo could be reversed, saying the envisaged policy was among the different strategies and initiatives that had been identified as having potential to address the problem.

“The National Entrepreneurship Policy is a first for us, what we used to have was an SME Policy. What we emphasise in the National Entrepreneurship Policy is building an ecosystem that supports and promotes entrepreneurship,” she said.

Ms Serame pointed out that one of the objectives of the policy would be to facilitate technology transfer and innovation, in recognition of the fact that for the country to move towards becoming a knowledge-based economy, there was need to leverage technology and also be innovative.

On other continuing initiatives she said the investment and trade ministry had recently launched Project Facilitation Fund, the purpose of which would be to assist entrepreneurs, especially youth, to undertake preparatory work need to be done before their projects could take off.

Moreover, Ms Serame observed that in moving towards becoming a knowledge-based economy, it was important that non-conventional sectors of the economy such as the creative industry also be considered.

In recognition of this need, she said government was in the process of developing a Creative Sector Strategy.

This sector, she said, was one of those that had the potential to grow even in the face of economic recessions, thereby continuing to create the much-needed jobs even during tough economic times.

From the Botswana Innovation Hub (BIH), head of the Science and Technology Park Dr Budzanani Tacheba noted that technology would be a key aspect of the future of any nation, and that the more societies embraced it, the more they would advance.

Dr Tacheba indicated that to stay ahead of the pack, it would be essential for nations to adopt a technological approach to doing things.

Regarding the African situation, he noted that while the continent had a challenge of having scores and scores of young, highly skilled, but unemployed youth, it could turn around its fortunes as it was endowed with great wealth, both human and natural resources.

“Africa has a wealth of resources, both human and natural, to address all the challenges that we have.

The youth are an essential and critical component of this equation,” he said.

He added that in order to harness the potential of African youths, it was paramount that nations worked hard at developing the right kind of traits and equipping young children with the right skills from the earliest possible.

“In our perspective as the Botswana Innovation Hub, teaching young children such subjects as robotics and coding is an essential tool for the future,” he added.

Professor Richard Mkandawire from the Alliance for African Partnership (AAP), an association comprising USA’s Michigan State University and 14 African universities, which include UB, commended Botswana for its commitment to the subject of youth development and empowerment.

He said it was heartwarming that the country had well-defined programmes, workable policies as well as practical interventions.

UB vice chancellor Professor David Norris commended the AAP for its commitment to ensuring that research was turned into action so as to have impact on societies.

He said it was sad that despite the millions of pula that had already been spent on research, it had little impact on the lives of people.

He observed that there was need for proper relations to exist between researchers, development agencies, and governments, because the existence of effective networks could transform research into action remained key.

The public forum brought together the youth, senior government officials as well private sector representatives to deliberate on issues pertaining to youth development and youth entrepreneurship. ENDS