Through its Entrepreneurship and Enterprise Development Programme (EEDP) initiative, Debswana awarded start-up capital and mentorship benefits to six tertiary students who emerged as top performers in the entrepreneurship challenge.

The six winners worked in pairs in three different companies which include Maru Farms, Lenko Scents and Columba Capita. The Challenge is a way of introducing real and practical paths of developing an entrepreneurial mindset, personal development, and elite business acumen in learners of higher education.

Speaking on the fundamental strategic need for the Entrepreneurship Challenge, Debswana Finance Performance Analyst, Onneile Maripe explained the company’s focus on Making Life Brilliant for all Batswana as a strategic imperative that is driven by entrepreneurial activity, mindset change, collaboration and partnerships. She said ultimately, the challenge is a path to Botswana’s economic pivot through indigenous solutions that create employment, and most importantly, generates a pipeline of high value young Batswana entrepreneurs. “It is through this active contribution to entrepreneurial activity that Debswana can significantly contribute to competitive innovation

development among young Batswana, a seamless articulation from higher learning to high level commercial performance by youth start-ups, and an elite entrepreneurial mindset approach to problem solving across several areas of life.”

This pilot challenge provided students from four partner institutions of higher learning; Botho University, University of Botswana (UB), Botswana Accountancy College (BAC) and Botswana International University of Science and Technology (BIUST) an opportunity to explore and test ideas in a rigorous, fun, and supportive environment. Registration was done via Build platform created by young developers at TheNeoHub.

A total of 217 applications were received from the four partner universities. From this number an audit was conducted and subsequently a total of 92 applications were deemed adequate to be assessed by a panel of judges in Phase 1 of the challenge. From the 92 assessed applications, 18 were selected through mutual consent of the judges, TheNeoHub and Debswana, and proceeded to the final phase of the challenge, dubbed the Debswana Entrepreneurship Challenge Grand Finale on Saturday.