BDC will incubate Alosa, which manufactures animal feeds, for 18 months where the company will receive monitoring, evaluation and mentoring as part of the deal. Alosa will also be assisted with structuring and modifying its business. According to the government investment arm, when they opened calls in February last year, about 244 entrepreneurs showed interest. They had to scrutinise the submissions looking at the compliance criterion which saw only 73 applications making it through. The shortlisted entries were then handed over to the RSM Consultants who were tasked with evaluating and selecting the winners. The process saw the top 10 applications battling it out last week for the top position, where they pitched their ideas to a panel of judges.
When handing over the cheque on Tuesday, BDC managing director, Cross Kgosidiile said the competition was open to 100% youth-owned Botswana companies between the ages of 18 and 35. Both start-ups and existing businesses qualified for the opportunity across all sectors. “We reached out to entrepreneurs to allow them to secure funding and mentoring. The call was open to all sectors to align with our mandate of investing in commercially viable businesses,” he said.
