The Botswana
Innovation Hub (BIH), which is funded by the country’s government, is taking a
multi-pronged approach to develop the country’s tech startup ecosystem. The hub
was a product of the Botswana Excellence Strategy of 2008, which set economic
diversification, job creation, and moving the country towards a knowledge-based
economy as key goals.
BIH was
established to play a key part in creating a prosperous, productive and
innovative Botswana, developing and operating Botswana’s first Science and
Technology Park. It is mandated with supporting new ventures and existing
companies in key focus sectors such as ICT, Biotechnology and mining and clean
technologies.
Disrupt Africa
reported last week BIH is in the process of implementing an Innovation Fund to
provide seed and early-stage growth funding to qualifying businesses, ideas and
concepts, but this is only the latest strategy undertaken by the hub to support
entrepreneurs in the country.
The hub also
runs the First Steps Venture Centre (FSVC), a technology entrepreneurship
development scheme developed as a hybrid business incubation and acceleration
venture programme. It currently has 15 startups under incubation.
“FSVC seeks to
support technology-oriented startups within the Botswana Innovation Hub
priority areas, that have the potential to grow into both the local and
international markets as well as a knowledge sharing platform in which
contribution to the broader development of technology entrepreneurship in
Botswana can be made,” FSVC programme manager Tshepo Tsheko told Disrupt
Africa.
BIH also runs
the Cyber City Kgotla Developer Community, an open community workspace “where
innovation, technology, entrepreneurship and investment meet”. The community
aims to facilitate the development and growth of innovative technology ideas to
benefit Botswana economically and socially.
“We are
building a platform for all those in the technology space in Botswana to
actively engage, from the researcher, developer, tech entrepreneur, ICT corporate
to investor,” said Tsheko. Not content with these two interventions, BIH has
also partnered Microsoft, with the tech giant underpinning the hub’s
entrepreneurship development initiative with state-of-the-art technology
facilities, while the Southern African Innovation Support (SIAS) programme
seeks to promote collaboration within the innovation systems of nearby African
countries in order to provide greater impact on economic and social
development.
“To unlock
innovative potential, it is important to establish and sustain a holistic and
interconnected environment, which has a foundation, built on both knowledge and
practice. SAIS contributes to developing this environment by bringing together
the elements of the systems of innovation in each country, and strengthening
the capacity of platforms that enable product, service and social innovations,”
said Tsheko.
He said the
various schemes – designed to mentor and coach entrepreneurs – would serve to
boost the Botswana technology space, which he said had started to bloom in the
last 5 five years. “Botswanan entrepreneurs have seen the potential in the
innovation space here for many years. With not only Botswanans taking note,
international corporates as well as expats have noticed the growing space,” Tsheko
said.
“Today
Botswana has very diverse culture in different spaces of technology, whether it
is ICT or clean technology. With the youth being the biggest demographic of
baby boomers in the tech space, the market anxiously welcomes innovation
product development.”
However, he
said like every good technology, until its relevance is explained the market
will not welcome it. “Thus initiatives like ours assist in building awareness
of the need for entrepreneurship and technology development,” Tsheko said.
Hub sustainability
has been the subject of ongoing debate and interest in recent months, with
Tsheko saying BIH’s sustainability strategy was premised on strategic
commercial projects with both government and private sector partners. These
range from the leasing of land for development, turnkey development for
companies locating in the park, and development of turnkey data centres.
“This will
enable BIH to continue to invest in supporting and nurturing technology
innovation and entrepreneurship in Botswana,” he said, adding BIH’s programmes
were initiated to to boost different sectors of entrepreneurship and
development.
“These result in new businesses, new markets and job creation, with those
factors being some of the key focuses of our country’s development Sustainability
comes from empowerment, relevance, being beneficial, these come from the seed
of result.”
