By John Churu, Gaborone, Botswana
Mascom Wireless held two days of consultative meetings for its Kitsong centre owners in Gaborone this week, to help the centre owners address challenges.
Speaking to the media at the launch, Mascom Public Relations Manager, Tebogo Lebotse-Sebego said the platform would give all Kitsong centre’s operators a chance to share ideas since they are always faced with challenges.
“It is for this reason why we brought you here, because there are some centres which are doing very well and doing tremendous work out there” she said. Lebotse-Sebego added that the workshop would enhance the centres which are not doing well so that they learn from those that do better in order to change or improve the way they operate their business.
Lebotse-Sebego said the forum will give a chance to the owners of the centres to be introduced to a collaboration tool that will make it easy for the owners to network, because she said it was wise to learn what others are doing.
She added that the tool will allow them to learn from each other by means of sharing information; ideas and benchmarks to make sure their businesses are sustainable and successful.
Mascom collaborated with the government so as to bring Information and Communication Technology (ICT) to empower the youth while making ICT donations to remote villages. By doing so Mascom had exceeded its commitment of 41 centres.
According to Lebotse-Sebego, 15 more centres are being developed and will be handed over early next year.
One beneficiary, Thomas Bika, Gakutlo Kitsong Center owner, heaped praises on Mascom for the opportunity that they gave him. Bika said he is now an established entrepreneur because of the generosity of Mascom.
“Today I am able to put food on my table and to help my family because of my Kitsong Center. I should point out that I am grateful for this opportunity because now I am a successful entrepreneur,” he said, adding that he has been in the business for the past four years.
He added that his center is able to provide ICT services to other remote places around Gakutlo and that he is also helping government to reach out to people because some of the government offices do not have electricity and internet.
Speaking at the same occasion, the Director in the Department of Telecommunications and Postal Services in the Ministry of Transport and Communications (MTC) Cecil Masiga, congratulated Mascom for the ICT mark they are leaving with their Kitsong projects. He challenged Mascom to do more than what they have achieved now adding that Mascom was a capable company that can change the outlook of business throughout the country.
