09 Oct 2025

Investors, mentors, policymakers and leaders have been called to recognise and support entrepreneurs as Botswana’s most vital form of human capital.

Speaking at a demo presentation session hosted by MIT Kuo Sharper Centre for Prosperity and Entrepreneurship in collaboration with Botswana Innovation Hub (BIH) in Gaborone on Tuesday, Vice President Ndaba Gaolathe said their role was indispensable and that they should be recognised.

Work with them, fund them, mentor them, advocate for them in driving Botswana forward and to attain the deliverables of the Botswana Economic Transformation Programme (BETP), Mr Gaolathe said.

Mr Gaolathe, who is also the Minister of Finance, said young people were not participants in the global dialogue but were authors and the living embodiment of Botswana’s true north, highlighting the need to nurture the entrepreneurial nature of the youth in realising national sustainable economic goals.

Reflecting on a recent visit to Cambridge University, he shared his admiration for African youth shaping global conversations.

“At Cambridge, I witnessed our continent’s finest young thinkers framing the future not as something to be waited for, but something to be built, their courage reminds me that the power of Botswana’s transformation lies not in our resources, but in our resolve,” he said.

He therefore, placed Botswana’s youth at the centre of economic and societal transformation, emphasising that their ideas, energy and leadership were the real drivers of long-term progress for Botswana’s future.

“Let us build a digitally enabled, an export-driven and economically diversified Botswana, a Botswana that is not only the best managed economy on the African continent, but a paragon of inclusive prosperity,” said Mr Gaolathe acknowledging that Botswana’s greatest wealth had never been in diamonds, nor land but the people.

Mr Gaolathe emphasised that the young entrepreneurs presenting were doing more than launching companies but helping to reshape Botswana’s identity.

“They are building confidence, they are building community, they are building a new national identity,” he said.

Sharing the same sentiments, Debswana chief operations officer, Mr Koolatotse Koolatotse also talked about the disadvantage of relying on a single commodity for revenue.

“The question on everyone’s mind is what will happen if diamonds revenue wane,” he said.

Mr Koolatotse embraced the initiative, to strive to export skilled labour or globally competitive product or service to the outside world.

MIT Kuo Sharper Centre executive director, Ms Dina Sherif for her part, said Demo Day was a declaration that Botswana’s transformation was not theoretical.

Ms Sherif said at the heart of the event were 31 exceptional entrepreneurs, selected from over 1 300 applicants, whose passion and perseverance represented the pulse of a nation ready for the future.

She explained that over the past three months, they had refined business ideas spanning agriculture, climate resilience, health, mining and digital services, the very sectors at the centre of Botswana’s development vision.

Of the 31, 16 founders took to the stage to pitch their ventures, each embodying the promise of a new Botswana to a panel of judges and potential investors, offering innovative solutions in areas of bioscience, smart agriculture and public transportation.

Demo Day, a platform designed to showcase Botswana’s emerging startups and innovative thinkers, was held as a national milestone in promoting a digitally enabled, export-driven and economically diversified future. ENDS