05 Oct 2020

Botswana International University of Science and Technology Vice Chancellor, Professor Otlogetswe Totolo says formation of the national research fund is critical to drive the knowledge-based economy. 

Addressing Kgalagadi District full council meeting recently, Prof. Totolo said in order to keep up with the ever changing technology globally, spending on research was imperative to improve ordinary lives of Batswana and position the country well on the Global Innovation Performance(GIP). 

He said currently Botswana was doing well, adding that developed countries which were leaders in innovation spent more of their gross domestic product (GDP) on research and development where some invested three to five per cent on research. 

He said most African countries had low research budget, adding that Botswana spent 0.4 per cent of its GDP on research and development and more needed to be done  to drive innovation. 

On the continent, he said South Africa was the leading country spending about one per cent of its GDP on research and development. 

Therefore, Professor Totolo encouraged politicians to formulate policies and legislation that support research and development.

Meanwhile, he said BIUST was doing away with basic scholarly research and facilitating applied research where researchers had their boots on the ground to understand issues around them and develop research products to be commercialised and sold even internationally. 

This development, he said, would help reduce Botswana’s high import bill and enable the country to be a player in exportation of diversified products, he said, adding that programmes offered in the BIUST curriculum produced graduates who were market ready and were able to set up their own enterprises.

Presently, he said  there was no national research fund, saying plans were on-going  to set up the research fund, which should be accessed on a competitive basis.  

Furthermore, Vice Chancellor Totolo said the university was aligned to national vision and was targeted at driving change. 

He said as one of the highest institutions of learning, BUIST positioned itself to play a meaningful role in the local economy through use of applied research to produce innovative solutions. 

He added that the university prepared students to deal with complex challenges in the communities and come up with engineering and scientific solutions

Professor Totolo told the Kgalagadi District councillors that Botswana needed more scientists and engineers to be able to stir innovation and be more impactful. However, the university was still faced with challenges of low admission numbers as it has currently enrolled 2 500 students. 

The target, he said, was to have 6 000 students by 2022. He said currently BIUST admits 500 students per academic year, hence he encouraged politicians to play their role, advocate for change, de-mystify science and share with communities the impact of science and engineering. 

Professor Totolo donated 2 000 liquid hand washing soaps measuring 750ml each to Kgalagadi District Council, Tsabong Unified Senior Secondary School, Khawa and McCathy’s Rust, which he said were developed by BIUST in conjunction with Morupule Coal Mine and Local Enterprise Agency as a vital COVID-19 response to the community. 

The liquid soap, he said, was manufactured at the university laboratories and was the inventions of BIUST students and academic staff. 

Meanwhile, Kang North’s Councillor Kemmonye Makatane encouraged BIUST to open satellite campuses to be able to reach areas that are far  from Palapye, where the university is based. 

He said that Kgalagadi had ample solar energy, which must be converted into electricity for both industrial and domestic use. Furthermore, he said that more research should be done to diversify natural resources found in the district such as devil’s claw (sengaparile), salt into and invasive prosopis commonly refered to as sexanana.

Gakhibane’s Councillor Tirelo Pule called for BIUST to do more research on illegal border crossing and come up with innovative solutions such as drones, which could aid the patrolling teams to secure borders. He said the problem was rampant as the district was located along the border lines. Furthermore, Cllr Pule called for more research to be done on sexanana and develop a chemical substance that could kill it selectively without polluting the environment. He said Kgalagadi District had saline borehole water, therefore the challenge called for solutions from the university. 

Tsabong East’s Cllr Peter Megano appreciated the university for employing a student centered approach to solve challenges in the communities. 

He called for the university to have a special dispensation that permits students from remote areas to be admitted to the university without being subjected to the high admission cut off points. 

He said students from such areas faced peculiar challenges, hence required a waiver to be able to take part in creating a knowledge-based economy. ends