06 Dec 2023

The fifth edition of Kusi Ideas Festival starts today at the  Royal Aria Conference Centre in Tlokweng.

President Dr Mokgweetsi Masisi is scheduled to officiate at the event and in attendance will be political leaders, high profile business leaders and other dignitaries from across Africa. Organisers of the event, Kenya’s Nation Media Group (NMG), who have partnered with the Botswana government for this year’s edition say the event, which  will be both a virtual-and-in-person affair, seeks to understand the complexities facing Africa today, and learn from the winners.

Hosted in Southern Africa for the first time, the two-day event comes at a time when Africa is on the journey to attaining inclusive and sustainable development and economic growth, through its ambitious blueprint Agenda 2063.

During a courtesy call on President Masisi in July, the media group led by board chairman Wilfred Kiboro stressed that the event was crucial for Africans to take control of their narrative and position the continent in the global arena.

President Masisi said the festival would provide a platform ‘to drive the continental agenda through pan-African collaborations, knowledge-sharing and the use of media platforms’.

He also highlighted the need to develop a long-term vision for media in Africa that drove unity, supported development and enabled the continent to inform and educate the larger global audience.

Botswana Tourism Organisation’s Acting Chief Executive Officer, Ms Keitumetse Setlang said the Kusi Ideas Festival event would be a springboard for activities that promote the MICE strategy under the auspices of the Ministry of Environment and Tourism.

Ms Setlang said the sector was poised to stimulate economic activities at all levels due to its multidisciplinary nature and that Kusi festival was one of the events that would demonstrate Botswana’s readiness to host events.

“The Kusi Ideas Festival has come at the right time as we are on a journey to cementing Botswana’s reputation as a leading business tourism destination as we embark on a journey to attract meetings, conferences and events. We stand ready to host delegates at all hospitality points,” she said.

NMG’s Head of External Affairs, Ms Kinya Gitonga said in this year’s edition, conversations would be centred on reviewing the continent’s progress on the African Union’s Agenda 2063, which was adopted in January 2015 as a blueprint for Africa’s economic transformation as this year marks 10 years on the 2063 journey.

She explained that the name Kusi meant the southerly tradewind that blows over the Indian Ocean between April to mid-September, and enabled trade up north along the east African coast and between Asia and Africa for millennia.

This year’s conference, is held under the theme; Africa’s Agenda 2063: Making the Dream Come True, and will bring together African leaders and delegates from various fields to explore Africa’s potential in various sectors, in an effort to transforming it into a global powerhouse of the future.

Kusi Ideas Festival was started four years ago by the Nation Media Group as a Pan-African platform to examine the Africa’s place in the world.

NMG has since hosted the maiden edition of the festival in Rwanda in 2019, hosted other editions in Kisumu, Kenya in 2020, Accra, Ghana in 2021 and Nairobi, Kenya in 2022 and the fifth Gaborone edition is expected to attract over 700 delegates of various professions, skills and expertise, across Africa and diaspora. Ends