31 Mar 2022

Citizen Entrepreneurial Development Agency (CEDA) through its agency’s Graduate Development Programme has employed 10 youths.

The programme launched in June 2019 recruits individuals with unique skills suited for the development finance environment.

“The aim of the programme is to unleash talent from new, high performing citizen graduates and develop them to diversify the pool of human capital for the Agency, national and international labour market,” CEDA chief executive officer Mr Thabo Thamane said.

Mr Thamane was speaking at the graduation ceremony of the 10 beneficiaries in Gaborone on Wednesday.

He said the programme was piloted in 2016 with one top achiever from the Botswana Accountancy College (BAC) who was later absorbed as part of the workforce. 

He said the success of the pilot led to the establishment of CEDA Graduate Development Programme to ease the challenges of getting the right people for the job. 

Mr Thamane said after a thorough selection process the Agency welcomed 10 young individuals who formed the first cohort of the programme, adding that it has been an engaging two years both for the graduates and all employees of the Agency as the graduates were taken through different departments.

The CEO said the absorption of the graduates would go a long way in solving the talent acquisition challenges that the Agency has been grappling with for some time and said the graduates had been displaying a sterling performance.

He urged them to continue serving the Agency with the same energy that they had displayed over the past two years and not relax now that they have been employed, stating that the Agency has put its faith in them as the leadership and are hopeful that they would take this Agency to new heights.

Mr Thamane said during their two year stay they even had an opportunity to present mind blowing innovations to management which he said if properly implemented would go a long way in contributing to the efficient delivery of the Agency’s mandate.

“Although clouded by the outbreak of COVID-19, I am happy to say that the programme has made significant strides in moulding this first cohort of exceptional individuals into CEDA employees. The last two years have provided a lot of lessons and insights to benefit future cohorts,” he said.

He said the inaugural cohort has exceeded expectation in both behaviour and performance and said they will be an example to the next cohort.

One of the graduates, Ms Thapelo Ngoni revealed that they managed to be where they were because of the commitment and sterling performance they showed during their two-year stay at the Agency.

She implored her peers who will become beneficiaries of the programme to emulate them and even perform better than them as opportunities like this one are very scarce and need to be used to the maximum. ENDS