15 Dec 2025

The University of Botswana (UB) and the Mafikeng Innovation Hub have signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) aimed at empowering young people to create jobs and drive innovation.
Speaking at the signing ceremony in Gaborone on Tuesday, UniPod Botswana Director, Professor Richie Moalosi, said the shrinking job market called for innovative ways to equip young people with skills to create employment opportunities for themselves and others.
Prof. Moalosi said UniPod was open to both to the public, in line with UB’s founding ‘one-man-one-beast’ principle.
He noted that although many innovators were youth, UniPod also supported older innovators.
“We are not a specialist hub like yours is more digital. We are in all the area because when they opened people from outside would come up with innovative ideas but we cannot say, this is in tech,” he said.
Prof. Moalosi said UniPod was established to nurture innovative ideas within and beyond the university. Half of its innovators come from outside UB, while the remaining 50 per cent are staff and students.
He further highlighted partnerships with institutions such as the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) in the United States, through the Maasai Innovation Programme, which currently supports 26 start-ups across various sectors.
He said the hub relied heavily on UB staff, volunteers from industry, and community goodwill, as UniPod could not supply all the specialised skills required by innovators.
He added that the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) had played a key role in building and equipping UniPod’s laboratories.
Prof. Moalosi noted that Information Technology graduates were among the hardest hit by unemployment, saying many of the estimated 70 000 unemployed graduates in Botswana came from the IT field. He stressed the need to integrate entrepreneurship into training to help them develop innovative products and systems.
For his part, Chief Executive Officer of the Mafikeng Innovation Hub, Mr Joseph Ndaba, said the collaboration sought to create meaningful impact by fostering African innovations that addressed African challenges.
He said universities were not only centres of research but also producers of intellectual property which entrepreneurs could turn into marketable products.
In his remarks, UB Vice Chancellor, Professor David Norris, said Africa had missed opportunities during the first three industrial revolutions and must take a leading role in the Fourth Industrial Revolution.
Prof. Norris said Africa had talented and creative young people who must not be left behind, adding that the partnership could serve as a springboard to drive innovation and ensure Africa moved in step with global developments.
He said that although young people were talented and innovative, many lacked business and entrepreneurship skills required to monetise their ideas. ENDS