Accelerator Picks Momentum
Cavin Kanoko | Monday March 9, 2020 12:26
Launched last year, the Incubator space sought to drive the employability of the initiative in the country and also address issues of enterprise development, which make a significant contribution to the economic growth of the country.
SMMEs have also been using the space for both mentorship purposes and also as a temporary base of operation during their incubation period.
Updating the media recently about the developments, Stanbic Bank of Botswana CEO Samuel Minta said they have some possible sources of funding for SMMEs and they are also working on establishing partnerships that will help them to effectively identify markets for the products that come out of the Accelar8 space.
“We are working on helping the SMMEs that utilise this space in terms of sourcing funding for their businesses and also in terms of finding the appropriate market for their products, ” Minta said.
He further said the long-term project is not just the bank’s project but also a collaborative effort with different stakeholders including the media and the government.
On his part the Head of AcceleR8, Larona Makgoeng said some of the ideas that he is working around, as the person in charge of the space is to ensure it can effectively serve its purpose of being the place where young entrepreneurs can come to network and also provide a cool working space for entrepreneurs using the space.
He says their intention is to change the dependency mindset of young entrepreneurs so that they can make use of strategic partnerships that can help grow their businesses without facing risks that individual financing poses to small businesses.
Makgoeng highlighted the recent announcement by the African Development Bank president on the projected rise in demand for agricultural produce to meet the needs of the increasing population of Africa to $1 trillion by 2030 saying this creates a window of opportunity for the country’s entrepreneurs to venture into the agricultural sector.
He pointed out that after consultations with different stakeholders they have set themselves a set of deliverables that they will be working on within set timeframes after which updates will be made available to the stakeholders and also to the public to allow them to have a sense of accountability.