Kgalagadi Beverages Trust (KBT) will on July 13, 2011 announce the 2011 KickStarter’s at an awards function in Gaborone at the Gaborone International Convention Centre (GICC).
Kgalagadi Breweries (Pty) Ltd (KBL) said on Friday out of more than one thousand applicants, twenty finalists stand a chance of winning seed capital and skills development for a year.
KBT, the social investment arm of KBL and Botswana Breweries (Pty) Ltd has, through KickStart, established and grown a significant number of small businesses owned by Batswana youth.
KickStart provides young entrepreneurs with monetary grants for business start-up or for the expansion of existing businesses, whilst also focusing on outcome-based business skills training and mentorship over a period of twelve months.
In its eighth year, KBT KickStart has become the country’s leading and largest entrepreneurship programme within the private sector; with the programme having become a benchmark for successful small enterprise development.
Each year, KickStart has seen thousands of budding and existing entrepreneurs between the ages of 18 and 30 years enter the competition. The primary intention is for candidates to develop sound business ideas and turn them into viable and sustainable businesses. Many of these businesses have become sustainable businesses that have become well established and competitive.
KBT initially established the programme as a way to address youth unemployment in Botswana.
KickStart later flourished to become the programme that encourages the spirit of entrepreneurship amongst the youth and a platform to stimulate local sustainable enterprise development.
KBL and BBL Director for Corporate Affairs and Strategy, Thapelo Letsholo, said, “Botswana is faced with high levels of unemployment and KickStart is an appropriate sustained response to the country’s national priority to create jobs, particularly amongst the country’s youth, by providing them with entrepreneurship opportunities through skills development. KBL and BBL are proud of the achievements of KickStart, considering that as a leading corporate, we have the inherent responsibility to care for the wellbeing of our society.”
Many of the KickStart businesses have grown to become significant companies, employing a significant number of people and positively contributing to both job creation and the broader Botswana economy.
