Botswana Life Sponsors Entrepreneurship Culture Week
Correspondent | Monday November 14, 2016 16:44
The platform, which seeks to assist the growing number of start-up businesses in Botswana, addressed challenges common to local and global entrepreneurs.
A working breakfast held at the offices of Botswana Life Insurance Limited interrogated the true state of the ecosystem of entrepreneurship in Botswana and the opportunities that lay ahead.
“I believe that a collaborative effort between all key stakeholders in the entrepreneurship value chain is required for us to take entrepreneurship development in our country to the next level. Knowledge sharing is key, so is the need to shift from giving the youth loans for businesses to providing equity,” said Bilkiss Moorad, CEO of Botswana Life Insurance Limited. The Entrepreneurship week, which is the brainchild of the Udugu Institute Botswana in partnership with various institutions, aimed to boost tech-oriented start-up businesses and find means of avoiding business failure by addressing common pitfalls that young entrepreneurs face.
Botswana Life was the main sponsor of the Boot Camp that saw industry leaders share knowledge on various aspects of entrepreneurship, as well as Financial Literacy sessions that focused on building the investment culture in Botswana.
The sessions explored the benefits of various forms of investments such as investing in stocks, insurance or savings products.
The key message for participants was that practical experience and knowledge about investments were paramount and that significant funds were not required in order to start investing.
The climax of the week was the global seed-stage startup competition for emerging markets and fast-growing startup tech companies.