ABSA CELEBRATES YOUNG ENTREPRENEURS

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ABSA CELEBRATES YOUNG ENTREPRENEURS
ABSA CELEBRATES YOUNG ENTREPRENEURS

Africa-Press – Botswana. Absa Bank, in partnership with Global Communities last Friday celebrated the successful completion of the Built 4 Biz programme, an initiative aimed at equipping young entrepreneurs with essential skills in Mahalapye.

The keynote speaker, who is also the head of financial institutions at Absa Bank, Ms Botho Phiri said the programme was designed to help entrepreneurs between the ages of 18 and 34 to develop technical and soft skills required to navigate the challenges of starting and scaling an enterprise in the post COVID-19 environment.

Ms Phiri advised graduates not to underestimate the opportunity they had been given.

She noted economic challenges, the unemployment rate and that government was likely to rationalise and retrench.

She also noted that the youth were the most impacted by unemployment.

She said the way out was through entrepreneurship as it would create jobs for themselves and others.

She advised graduates to take action and said having endured six months of training meant they were determined.

Ms Phiri also urged the graduates to continue research on what they had learnt so that they became successful and bold about their business.

She advised the young leaders to remain focused and to believe in themselves, adding that they should be passionate and never give up.

The programme officer from Mother’s Union Mahalapye, Mr Kenneth Madome said the main aim of the programme was to teach entrepreneurship skills and to train people to make their own business plans and to assist them with start-up capital.

The programme started last year with 52 participants.

Top achievers were given seed funding for their business.

Winners were Ms Olorato Motsaathebe, who walked away with the first prize of P14 000.

The second position went to Ms Doreen Letshwenyo who won about P7 000 while the third position was taken by Mr Boago Medupi to start their business ideas.

They promised to hold on to their businesses in order to create jobs for others.

“We believe that empowering entrepreneurs with the right skills and knowledge is pivotal in driving economic growth and fostering innovation in our communities,” said Ms Phiri.

She said the programme covered aspects such as entrepreneurship, personal mastery, financial management, compliance, building green business models as well as sales and marketing.

She added that by combining technical expertise and soft skills, the programme was intended to provide participants with a holistic approach to building successful businesses in an ever-evolving environment.

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