27 Jun 2023

Botswana’s stable economic status and its position in abiding  by the  rule of law makes it ideal for partnerships to strive.

President Dr Mokgweetsi Masisi said this when welcoming the Board of Trustees of the Africa-America Institute (AAI) chairperson, Ms Christal Jackson during a courtesy call meeting yesterday.

He added that government also had policies in place geared at nurturing a conducive environment for private partnerships growth.

President Masisi said government, in her efforts to improve lives of citizens, would continue to forge partnerships with reputable institutions, particularly the AAI, which he applauded for having played a meaningful role in developing the country’s human capita through scholarships.

“It is worth noting that the AAI has in the past given so much to Botswana, through offering various scholarships, thus government appreciates its contribution in nurturing the transformation from a resource-based to a knowledge-based economy,” said President Masisi.

He added that having made a commitment to drive transformation of Botswana’s economy through job creation and facilitating transition from resource-based to knowledge-based, it was therefore important to enlist the private sector.

The President also indicated that there were opportunities for partnerships in the digital space as government continued to modernise networking through different initiatives in order to bring its Information and Communication Technology (ICT) infrastructure to a desirable state of effective and efficient service delivery.

“Forging of partnerships would support government initiatives aimed at supporting local innovations by transforming those ideas into commercially tradable goods and services through provision of a conducive business environment,” he said.

For her part, Ms Jackson applauded government for it's commitment towards uplifting livelihoods of all citizens.

She said AAI would continue to raise funds to provide scholarships to smart and under-resourced students to attend top-performing African universities and develop programmes that focused on increasing the skills of the next generation of African youth so that they became globally competitive.

Founded in 1953, AAI is a premier US-based international organisation dedicated to strengthening human capacity of Africans as well as promoting the continent’s development through higher education and skills training, convening activities, programme implementation and management. ENDS