17 Aug 2026

University of Botswana (UB), Botswana Open University (BOU), Botswana International University of Science and Technology (BIUST) and Botswana University of Agriculture and Natural Resources (BUAN) have signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) aimed at deepening cooperation on public procurement practice across the country’s four public universities. 

The signing ceremony took place last week at the UB Council Chamber, bringing together leadership from all four institutions. Presenting an overview of the agreement, UB chief finance officer Professor David Tele explained that the MoU established a framework for cooperation on best practice and compliance with Botswana’s public procurement laws, particularly the Public Procurement Act of 2021 and its regulations. 

Its objectives range from sharing procurement policies and audit lessons to strengthening governance and controls, joint training, coordinating engagement with the Public Procurement Regulatory Authority, exploring collaborative purchasing, and working together on a digital procurement transformation project. The theme of the ceremony addressed scale of opportunity created by combining the four institutions’ purchasing power. 

He said the universities collectively managed a budget of more than P6 billion, a figure that underlined the leverage they could bring to bear by negotiating deals jointly rather than separately. 

Implementation will be overseen by a Joint Implementing Committee, to which each university will appoint at least two representatives. 

The committee will identify priority areas, coordinate joint projects, exchange information, evaluate progress and report back to each institution’s management. Prof Tele stated that the MOU created no funding obligations or financial liability for any of the four universities. 

The MOU will run for five years, with any party able to withdraw on three months’ notice. Intellectual property will remain with the institution that owns it, and information shared between the parties must be kept confidential and not disclosed without prior written consent. 

The MOU is described as a non-binding framework of cooperation, creating no legal obligations and gives the four institutions a platform to bargain collectively and cooperate more closely on procurement going forward. BOU vice chancellor Prof Kgomotso Moahi described the signing as history in the making, pointing out that procurement had long struggled with public trust and that closer collaboration between the institutions would help ensure things were done by the book. 

She likened the initiative to the long-standing consortium model used by university librarians, who pool their numbers to negotiate better prices, adding that with four institutions now at the table, “we are all eating from the same pot.” ENDS