Botswana Insurance Holdings Limited (BIHL) Group greatly values partnering with community businesses across Botswana. In testament of this, BIHL Group collaborated with the Ministry of Youth, Sports and Culture (MYSC), councillors, Village Development Committee (VDC) members, Captive Eye Youth Movement and the Botswana Police Service, to host a BOT50 Fan Park for the Gaborone West community. Held amongst families and friends of the community on September 30th 2016, at Lady Olebile Masire Grounds, the BIHL Fan Park served as part of the support initiatives for the Independence Day celebrations. The Fan Park featured live streaming of the celebrations that took place from the National Stadium and a formidable array of local greats with a majority of them from G-West. Artists who graced the staged included: Slizer, Eskimos, Mingo, Diphetogo Choir, Magosi a Setso Traditional Dance, Figos, Makau, Wizards of the Desert and Sphamandla.
Said BIHL Group Chief Executive Officer, Catherine Lesetedi-Letegele, “We are grateful to Member of Parliament, Rre Ndaba Gaolathe, Town Clerk Rre Mpho Mathe and Bophirima Ward Councilor, Rre Kagiso Sengwaketse for welcoming our initiative to celebrate with the G-West community and the rest of our beloved nation for Boipuso. This is especially so since we marked a pivotal year in our national history in celebrating 50 golden years as a proud, peaceful, and prosperous nation. Even better is the fact that we were afforded the opportunity to host a platform that directly supported inter-community trade. We also made it a point to hire other members of the community, especially the youth to assist with the running of the fan park and our artist lineup was also meant to support those that call G-West home. We hope our model will be a catalyst for unlocking more business opportunities for Batswana, especially smaller merchant businesses, in the near future. Botswana is open for business and we remain committed to her people’s growth.”
Working with VDC representatives from across all 10 wards of G-West, BIHL partnered with local merchants from G-West to sell food, beverage, child edutainment services and other provisions to the Fan Park audience. Through this collaboration, members of the community were also hired to provide ushering and cleaning services, providing means of short-term jobs for the community to benefit over Boipuso, while in turn ensuring town facilities were well handled. As a token of appreciation, BIHL Group also handed over gifts to VDC committee members for their earnest partnership with the Group for this initiative. The Group believes such public-private collaborations are key to diversifying Botswana’s industries, creating opportunities for employment and therefore catalysing sustainable development for the journey into the next 50 years as the Republic of Botswana.
Lesetedi-Letegele concluded by saying, “We count ourselves privileged as a Group to have had the support of our customers and a robust and talented team over our 40 years in business, to seize opportunities allowing us to play a significant role in driving some of Botswana’s most established financial solutions and community projects. These continue to assist and support hundreds of thousands of lives and many businesses across our nation and why we continue to seek ways to extend our reach in driving sustainable change and impact. Together with our G-West Community and our nation, we celebrate our Botswana heritage. We reflect on where we come from, we appreciate where we are and now, it is time to forge ahead with our plans for the next 50 years to come!”