Ministry seeks young innovators
GOVERNMENT
| June 16, 2013, 7:58 a.m.
By John Churu, Gaborone, Botswana
The Botswana Ministry of Transport and Communication has trumped up a competition that targets young innovators in the country. Through its Young Innovators Competition 2013, the Ministry is seeking to lure the “next generation of social technopreneurs who are aged between 18 and 26 with an inspirational ICT based solution to developmental challenges.”
According to the information reaching BiztechAfrica, ten winning finalists will be selected to attend the ITU Telecom World 2013 in Bangkok and also taking part in workshops, pitching sessions, mentoring and networking on top of receiving seed funding of up to US$10 000 per project.
With the same initiative the ministry in 2012 sent five young Batswana to Dubai to attend the ITU World Forum for “exposure and benchmark.”
“Your idea could be a start-up already up and running but in need funding to implement the next stage and bring it to scale. Or it could be a concept worked on paper in need of support to make it real. It doesn’t matter, what we want are innovative solutions which can really make an impact on the world and improve live by using connected technologies (ICTS) to address one of our six grand challenges,” said a ministry spokesperson.
The challenges referred to encompass issues like; improving employment opportunities for young people and migrant workers, reducing food and water shortages at individual and retail level, facilitating access to public services for the elderly, improving natural disaster prediction and response and protecting sensitive personal data and inspire the creation of local digital content.
To this end, the Ministry is encouraging all young Batswana to enter this competition in large numbers. Botswana is a member of the ITU and would like to see “our young people taking part in these competitions’. The deadline for submissions to ITU is 30 June 2013 at 24:00GMT+2. However the ministry would rather have submissions arriving earlier, on the 20th of June at the Ministry Headquarters to “allow for assistance where needed.”
