Friday, February 7, 2025

Mindset change crucial to advance entrepreneurship in Botswana

The question of how natural resources such as diamonds, coal and copper affect economic development is an important and intriguing field of economic research.  For countries like Botswana the effect of these resources on development tends to differ between physical and human capital development outcomes. One would therefore not be outright wrong to suggest that our natural resources, more especially diamonds must be viewed as a double-edged sword. From distance, our minerals, more especially diamonds seem to have an all-positive economic effect but a closer look shed some light on the negative institutional effect more especially on human development side. This is to say, while fortune came with the discovery of diamonds in our country ion the 70s, it also created generations that are more dependent on state. The end results as we see now it’s a country whose economy is in the hands of foreigners. This scenario leaves us with a serious public problem that needs immediate solutions. As we work on challenging this public problem, it appears that embracing the entrepreneurial spirit will help in developing solutions. Infact a Harvard Business School Professor Mitchell Weiss in his book: ‘We the Possibility: Harnessing Public Entrepreneurship to Solve Our Most Urgent Problems’ posits that entrepreneurs both inside and outside of government can tackle problems by viewing them as opportunities, trying new ideas, scaling them up, and improving public life.

Of course this is not call for our government, more especially the new Minister of Entrepreneurship, Karabo Gare to adopt all the behaviors of entrepreneurs and import them into the government enclave. The government should however consider adapting some of the skills and practices of entrepreneurship for the public sector. In short, given our national development level, it is essential for us to try new things in quick and efficient ways. Perhaps this is one of the lessons that we expect those who represented the country at the just ended Forbes under 30 Summit to have picked. Our budding entrepreneurs should uproot the “fear of failure” and have a mindset change for entrepreneurship to advance in this fast paced global economy. This of course starts with our Financial Development Institutions (FDIs) like CEDA, LEA and BDC also changing their mindsets and be willing to take risk with the citizen entrepreneurs.  The support of these FDIs is a critical part of developing the entrepreneurship ecosystem in any given country.

If there is any other key lesson we should have picked from Forbes Summit is that things would not change overnight. This is in reference to the bid to host, the hosting of the event as well as post-summit programmes (if any are in place). From where we stand, it appears our government made a premature to host this summit which has both an advantage and disadvantage in my view. The advantage of it is that it came with many lessons, which some of us picked from distance and hope those who were closer to the table took note of. The unfortunate part of it that is that we seem to have spent a lot of money on it without targeted return on investment. I highlight the worry that we might have not been ready to host because given the company profiles of some of our delegates it highly unlikely that a majority of them could come up with any innovative ideas and sustainable solutions. This is not to say some of them are not good or they can never be good. This an end product of a nation that was mineral dependent which failed as to develop its human beings more especially the entrepreneurship ecosystem. Many countries across the world, including the likes of Kenya heavily invested in developing their entrepreneurship ecosystem as a strategy to diversify their economies to fuel not just growth but accumulation of wealth by citizens. Such nations have long come to their sense to realise that startups are one of the strongest engines for wealth creation, employment and economic growth. Our national aspirations as pointed out on the Vision 2036 document and recent needs cannot be fulfilled by the existing large enterprises alone. Startups can act as a vehicle to achieve the next level of economic growth and social development. The development of such startup is the primary responsibility of entrepreneurs in collaboration with FDIs. Our young people should explicitly be encouraged to question, experiment, observe, and network to generate novel ideas. Our FDIs should be capacitated both through money and adequate human personnel to be able to help our entrepreneurs to be in positions where they are not afraid to take chances and fail. The entrepreneurs, the FDIs and the nation must show tolerance to failure, as failure is a natural part of innovating.

The role and importance of entrepreneurship development in a country like ours is quite significant and cannot be over emphasised. The newly created Ministry of Entrepreneurship can and must do more to render the needed support and create opportunities for the entrepreneurs to flourish. As these are the formative days of the ministry, one expects Minister Gare and his team to take a strong stance and lobby the government to consider investing more in entrepreneurial work so that entrepreneurship becomes a productive and competitive sector. With time the entrepreneurial sector will grow and offer better returns for our country away from diamonds and other minerals. Given the sorry picture of high unemployment in an economy dominated by foreigners, if there is ever a time to turn the tables in favour of the citizens, this is it. Given the loss of faith in governments around the world, ours need a new approach if we are to avoid blood on the floor. The simple thing to do, to avert all these is to have the new ministry through the Economic Inclusion Act – contributing to the creation of new jobs, digital transformation and most importantly ensuring that citizens who have been excluded become part of the mainstream economy. The #Bottomline is that some countries like Kenya and China have been successful in promoting entrepreneurship. The same approach can be replicated but with some adjustments to suit our environment.

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