Africa-Press – Botswana. The Forbes Africa under 30 Summit returns to Botswana after its debut in April last year. Themed: Entrepreneurial Africa-with Botswana at the centre, the summit will be held in Gaborone from Sunday to Thursday.
President Dr Mokgweetsi Masisi is scheduled to join the world’s elite young entrepreneurs and game-changers who will be gathered at the Main Mall, one of Gaborone’s oldest shopping precinct, for the summit’s welcome celebrations and people’s concert dubbed, The Pan-African Welcome Celebration, on Sunday.
The concert will be headlined by international artistes in the likes of Sauti Sol and Nomcebo Zikode, alongside local artistes including ATI, Amantle Brown, Team Distant, Dato Seiko, Dr Vom, Stabito, Ubuntu Band and Jena Dominique.
President Masisi will officially open the main event at the Botswana Digital and Innovation Hub on Monday.
Forbes Communication Committee Chairperson – Government, Mr Fenny Letshwiti said in an interview that hosting the summit afforded Botswana an opportunity to promote entrepreneurship and position itself as a centre for trade networks.
He said as the first African country to host the Forbes Africa under 30 Summit, this had afforded local entrepreneurs an opportunity to position themselves on the global platform thereby giving them access to over 100 million followers of Forbes and the Forbes Content and potential impressions.
This includes over 5 000 mentors and 425 119 post-event mentions across all social media platforms.
“The return of the summit to Botswana for the second time this year is expected to harness the power of entrepreneurial capitalism amidst the continent whose growth will help define the 21st century,” he said, adding that this was premised on the fact that Forbes champions success by celebrating those who had made it, and those who aspired to make it.
He said over 800 delegates would participate in the summit which would feature speakers from diverse backgrounds, focusing on amongst others entrepreneurship, investment and innovation. Locally, 250 young Batswana delegates who met the selection criteria in consultation with government made the cut.
Business profiles of the delegates range from Manufacturing & Industry, Technology, Art & Fashion, Marketing & Advertising, Social Impact, Education, Retail & Ecommerce, Food & Drink, Finance & Venture Capital, Healthcare, Music, TV & Entertainment, Energy, Media & Social Media, Science, Sports, and Games.
Besides Botswana, as the host, Mr Letshwiti said delegates from over 53 countries such as South Africa, Nigeria, the US, Tanzania, Europe, and India were also expected.
President Dr Masisi, Forbes Chief Content Officer Mr Randall Lane, Future Head of Operations, Emma Wareus, Founder of Sustain 267, Pato Kelesitse, BellaNaija chief executive officer
Uche Pedro, Yellow Card founder Chris Maurice, and MeTLGroup president Mohammed Dewji are expected to inspire the newest and next generation of leaders.
Reflecting on the gains from last year’s summit, he said Batswana were afforded access to other platforms of Forbes – Forbes Africa Woman, currently happening in South Africa this week.
He said some Batswana youth had travelled to Forbes, adding that currently there were some who had taken the Nomad visa and moved abroad.
“Batswana innovators have also been poached by international organizations in Zambia, Holland and South Africa that took a liking to their products and services,” he said.
He said the summit had inculcated a better mindset to entrepreneurship through collaboration and partnerships.
Batswana have partnered with other entrepreneurs in the region and the entrepreneur will be hosting a conference this weekend with partners from Nigeria and South Africa, he explained.
The conference has attracted full sponsorship from large corporates in Botswana. This has improved their ability to pitch for investment and partnerships,” he added.
He said Batswana have also been doing pitches to the Dubai based VC, adding that two Batswana would participate and present their pitch at the Collision Tech Conference in June 2023.
“This is the biggest Tech Summit globally. They have already sold an app created for private aviation to an Indian consortium”.
Mr Letshwiti said Forbes had also provided opportunities for Batswana to harness the social impact programmes as a business. He talked about Laone Jimmy as one of those who were pursuing start-up innovation in the social impact programme.
Other partnerships, he said included that of a Kenyan and a Motswana for a clean cooking manufacturing business that would distribute 5 million clean cooking stoves to Southern Africa.
A global marketing firm with clients such as Netflix, Coca-Cola, Disney and Ford motor company has also partnered with Motswana.
Additionally, he said a young Motswana had also been invited to the Cannes International Film Festival in June 2023 to showcase her movies.
The Cannes International Film Festival is the leading platform for creatives and producers in the film industry.
“We look forward to a great event that will elevate entrepreneurship amongst the young people and afford them an opportunity to hear from government, venture capitalists and business role models, providing inspiration for the newest and next generation of leaders,” he said.
Other activities for the summit include a Bush Braai session at Cricket Club on Tuesday, featuring popular Nigerian Afro Beats artiste, Davido, who is also in the line-up of speakers.
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