15 Mar 2020

The Forbes Under 30 summit scheduled for April 19 to 23 has been postponed as a precautionary measure amid the COVID-19 outbreak.

A statement from Forbes’ editor and chief content office says the summit has been moved to December.

“Forbes remains committed to bringing the Under 30 Summit to Africa for the first time, especially to Botswana, as we believe that entrepreneurship and growth will drive prosperity on the continent this year.

But our first priority right now is the well-being of our participants, both in terms of the coronavirus and travel disruption as well as the citizens of our host country,” says the statement.

Ministry of Trade and Investment public relations officer, Ms Potso Thari also confirmed the postponement, saying it was to minimise the risk of spreading the virus.

The planning of the conference was underway with more than 600  young entrepreneurs and game-changers from across the world expected to attend the summit.

The statement says despite the summit postponement, it comes at a time when Botswana has re-invigorated its pursuit to the transformation agenda which places the youth at the core of planning with a well-established policy framework that seeks to promote youth participation in economic development.

The summit objectives are to promote youth development and entrepreneurship and to provide a platform for networking young entrepreneurs as well as harnessing the economic benefits for service providers and producers across various sectors.

Of the 600 participants, one third will come from the 30 Under 30 Africa community, one third from Botswana and one-third from the Forbes 30 Under 30 community worldwide.

Botswana is required to raise P11 million to be used to finance the summit and a lot of private companies have pledged their support of the event.

Hosting of such a prestigious event is seen as fostering entrepreneurship in the country and exposing the youth to international business people and to provide the youth with the opportunity to network with their peers.

Government in-conjunction with the private sector will finance 200 Batswana youth entrepreneurs who will have the opportunity to interact with game-changers and local entrepreneurs with the possibility of establishing long-term business partnership.

 In addition, the social and cultural aspect of the summit will accord local artists, chefs and entrepreneurs an opportunity to showcase their talents, hence giving participants a Botswana cultural experience. Ends