26 Apr 2023

The ongoing Forbes Under 30 Summit Africa has been described as an eye opener as it provides a platform for local entrepreneurs to learn from various successful industry leaders.

For Mr Kgosi Rankwaila, who runs Legoledi Investment, a company with a diverse portfolio, the summit enabled him to engage with local and international youths.

He said dream was to see his business growing, further adding that he too would like to see himself as a speaker at a Forbes Summit event one day.

The Selebi Phikwe based entrepreneur said, ‘the first company that we started in 2012 was stationery and printing services, a business that offers photocopying, printing and binding and laminating services’.

“The other business is in photography and videography as well as making documentaries,” he said.

Legoledi Investments also offers consulting and accounting services and has recently expanded to offer tuition services.

“We are introducing a different concept. We realised during COVID-19 that many people could not carry on with their education and we are integrating the platforms that exist to disburse education to the students,” he said.

Further, Mr Rankwaila said they intended to bridge the gap between the BGCSE and tertiary level, which he said was challenging for  some children as they were not fully prepared for the transition from secondary to university.

“They find themselves indulging in soothing methods like drugs and alcohol which are mainly caused by the culture shock which they experience. We try to mould them into a flawless transition to tertiary education,” he said.

His obstacle to business growth however had been lack of human resources, not that Batswana did not have the requisite skills but rather, they preferred working for the government rather than the private sector for job security.

“We do not have the right kind of human resource, the requisite human resource that are willing to do the work on commission basis,” he said.

He described the private sector as lucrative, but said they lost to the public sector due to job security.

“These are the reasons Legoledi is looking for partnerships to diversify its portfolio, we have to have access to the right people so we manage to help prepare the youths to choose their careers wisely,” he said when talking about the mentorship they wanted to introduce.

Selebi Phikwe is home to the BCL Mine and following its closure, some people have been reluctant to operate businesses in the town but Mr Rankwaila said their operations had been sustainable.

“Certain businesses were not severely affected. Some businesses that were supporting the mine had to find greener pastures, but we have the support of the public sector and further, the education sector was not hard hit because students had to return to schools,” he said.

The mining town produces the best academic results in the country and Mr Rankwaila said he was concerned that once the learners  leave the mining town, they never return.

He further said it would be good if such students would return to mentor their juniors, adding Selebi Phikwe pupils continued to enjoy the limelight at national level.

He noted that a number of celebrities amongst them Dumi Lopang and Obza are products of Selebi Phikwe. He said they were intending to expand into the creative sector so that they could plough back to the community.

Mr Rankwaila further said they would like to work with other artistes and promote a platform for them to grow and expand beyond Botswana borders, hoping that one day they could achieve a status similar to Davido, a Nigerian-American Afrobeat sensation whose Timeline album sits at number 2 in the Billboard chart.

 

For Mr Rankwaila, someone from Botswana would also one-day be invited to the Forbes Under 30 Summit to talk about their success in the industry.

The Forbes Under 30 Summit Africa which has attracted 250 youths who represent diverse businesses, from agriculture, technology to fashion design and creative and provides a platform for the local youths to network with their counterparts from other countries and build long lasting business relationships, ends on Wednesday. ENDS