Will funding reach creatives?
Lucy Kgweetsi | Monday November 17, 2025 06:00
While the initiative is framed as a step towards youth empowerment, there are serious questions about its likely effectiveness. In his State of the Nation Address (SONA), President Duma Boko said, “We see your energy, we value your ideas, we admire your courage. Your talent, creativity, and innovative spirit stand at the very heart of our national renewal.”
He added that the government would “not dismiss your ideas but develop them, we will not ignore your aspirations but invest in them.” For a sector that has seen repeated pledges fall short, such statements are familiar but untested.
The PYEC outlines flagship initiatives, including a Digital Content Creation Hub and a proposed Cinematography Bill to modernise Botswana’s film industry. In theory, these programmes could provide mentorship, skills development, and clearer production standards.
Despite the announcement, details remain sparse. There is no clarity on how participants will be selected, how funding will be allocated, or how the programmes will reach creatives outside urban centres. Without these mechanisms, the initiatives risk benefiting only a narrow group of artists already connected to established networks.
President Boko also mentioned a baseline study to identify 1,000 “most promising candidates” and produce tools such as a Botswana Digital Employability Index and a national trainer registry. While the effort to quantify and track youth creative talent is commendable on paper, it is not clear how the study will ensure equitable access for artists across the country. Rural and under-resourced communities, long excluded from prior programs, may once again find themselves left behind.
Even the announced P200 million, while significant, must be considered in context. Spread across multiple sectors and initiatives, the actual impact on individual creatives could be limited.
Botswana’s creative industry faces structural challenges like inadequate infrastructure, high production costs, and limited pathways to markets both locally and internationally. Without strategic planning and oversight, funds risk being largely symbolic rather than transformative. Past experience underscores these concerns. Numerous government-led programs have been announced with fanfare, only to suffer delays, insufficient funding, or poor follow-through.
For a sector already constrained by systemic challenges, empty promises can be damaging, creating false expectations among young artists eager for opportunities.
Botswana’s youth are repeatedly described as the nation’s “most valuable and precious resource.” Yet unless government programs move beyond rhetoric to tangible action, the country’s creative potential will remain largely untapped.
The PYEC, Digital Hub, and Cinematography Bill could succeed, but only if accompanied by transparency, accountability, and mechanisms to ensure equitable access. Without these safeguards, the latest round of funding risks becoming another cycle of announcements with little real world effect.