Youth-owned firm wins Orange Venture Prize
Pauline Dikuelo | Tuesday September 19, 2017 15:50
Owned by Segolame Kopelang, the company created a mobile app and website platform as part of the competition. “The app and website aim to bridge the education gap by sharing all the relevant information to ensure that all prospective students have full information at the tip of their fingers which would help them to see the available institutions of study and requirements,” Kopelang said.
He said Botswana like many developing countries faces problems of unemployment, as youth who graduate from tertiary institutions are not immediately absorbed into the market. “Key information such as courses offered at the various institutions, its duration, and its entry requirement as well as the institution itself may be known or easily available to prospective students,” he said.
Kopelang’s company, together with his successors, Studacad E-Learning Platform and BDBC, which took position two and three respectively, would now be entered into the international competition to compete for the grand prize of £25,000 (P345,700) with winners from other countries. Studacad E-Learning Platform walked away with P25,000 while BDBC pocketed P10,000. The Orange Social Venture Prize is an initiative that seeks to boost and encourage start-ups in Africa to develop innovative projects that promote and enhance development in the region.
This year Botswana received 53 submissions from local entrepreneurs, which Orange Botswana chief executive officer, Patrick Benon said was a 13% increase from the 2016 submissions.
“This year’s submissions were diverse and included projects from the healthcare, e-commerce, education, agriculture and energy sectors which is an illusion of the entrepreneurial dynamics and telecommunications potential of Botswana and Africa as a whole,” he said.
This year’s edition comprised two phases, which all 53 entrants competed at the national level where the top 10 were selected by an internal jury. This was followed by a pitch ceremony on September 5, where the top 10 candidates presented their projects to an independent panel of judges. “In 2014, Botswana registered an international win through ‘Modisar’, which is an agricultural farm management start-up. The prize propelled the start-up towards being a successful entity it is today. In 2015, ‘These Hands’ reached the final stages of the international competition,” he said.
According to Benon, the above examples are indeed testimony to the fact that Botswana as a country has a lot of potential in the ICT sector.