03 Dec 2023

President Dr Mokgweetsi Masisi walked tall Saturday after meeting the Botswana innovators and appreciating their works at the Expo City in United Arab Emirates.

The President, who himself had many engagements as head of state and Global champion on Climate Change, was especially thrilled that the majority of the innovators were young and vibrant Batswana, whose green technologies will transcend the Botswana shores and fight greenhouse emissions that had negatively depleted the Ozone layer and caused disaster of astronomical proportions.

He promised the aspiring innovators of government’s support to help mobilise and scale up their innovations for the benefit of Botswana and the rest of the international community.

“We will assist you. You should not be doing this on your own. As a government, we are mobilised and aligned to making sure we green our energy structure and development,” he said, calling on budding innovators to have their concepts registered and patented so that they could be adopted.

He assured the innovators that the government was more than ready to take them through baby steps in their quest to realise their goals.

Giving them nuggets of wisdom, President Masisi reminded the young people to build networks and seek legal advice and financial gurus to avoid underlying setbacks that come with venturing into the innovation space.

Also, President Masisi challenged the private sector, an important stakeholder as far as development is concerned, to chip in and bankroll innovation in Botswana.

National Development Bank, ABSA as well as First National Bank Botswana (FNBB) form part of the Botswana private sector that is taking part at the ongoing COP28 that is scheduled to end on December 12.

Innovators covered areas such as medicine and renewables. Ends