19 Nov 2013

There is a pressing need for the country to improve its ability to innovate.

This was expressed recently during the Botswana Innovation Hub and Southern Africa Innovation Support (SAIS) design lead innovation dialogue held at Oodi College of Applied Arts and Technology.

According to SAIS country coordinator, Mr Ambrose Makgonatsotlhe, Botswana was lacking behind in terms of ability to innovate when compared to other countries of its status.

He said the country was rated number 102 out of 156 countries with regard to the ability to innovate when compared to other countries. Hence, he said his organ was willing to offer support to the innovation agenda regardless of whether they are for networking or capacity building.

“We have been conducting series of innovation cafes around the country and this is the eighth this year,” he added. Furthermore, he added, there were numerous funding opportunities such as Youth Development Fund and Citizen Enterprise Development Agency which could fund such innovations.

He added that Botswana Innovation Hub was also in the progress of launching a programme to fund innovation design projects. Mr Makgonatsotlhe said this was despite that the country school curriculum had been offering design and technology studies for the past 25 years.

Furthermore, he said, government spent millions of pula sending students to various design programmes in creative arts. He regretted that the design and innovation sub sector of the economy had been failing to provide meaningful inputs to the economy.

Mr Makgonatsotlhe said this raised questions as to whether the country’s education system had enough capacity or whether design was relevant to the economy or whether the industry is ready to absorb and support innovation among others things.

This, he added, had created a gap in the country’s economy as it had failed to leverage with some of its core products such as diamonds.

“We are the world largest producer of diamonds by value, but less innovation is taking place on the diamonds themselves,” he added. For his part, Oodi College of Applied Arts and Technology deputy principal, Mr Basima Basima said shortage of resources for graduates also hampered their innovativeness as materials are expensive.

Hence, the college aspiring to be semi autonomous so that they could link up with the private sector and be able to engage graduates to utilise the college equipment for their products. Other members of the dialogue blamed the school curriculum for having failed to inculcate traditional innovative ideas into the syllabus. ENDS