Innovation: Future Forward Botswana
When we speak of innovation, there is certainly potential waiting to be unlocked — like Jack Ma, founder of Alibaba Group said, “Lack of infrastructure should not be seen as a challenge but an opportunity”. Our problems and challenges can become our opportunity and with the rate of technology innovation, there is no doubt that growth can be catapulted by new ways of doing things. Botswana is in the midst of a social, political, and economic transformation that has brought economic growth, some newfound political stability, and increased foreign investment.
With a focus on encouraging intra-Botswana businesses and the need to fast-track growth and development, there is no doubt that some focus is needed — focus on key areas that form the cornerstone to all economic development. Botswana is presented with several challenges, and with that, opportunities. However, these opportunities can only be unlocked, if we tackle them systematically and if we focus on the core of what drives an economy — its people, its ability to innovate and thereby its ability to improve growth.
At the outset, we need to focus on unlocking regional growth, finding ways to work together — across the country. Some of the key questions that need to be addressed here however, include: what are policy makers currently doing and what can they do better, similarly, what are industries doing and what can they do better?
Botswana has very often done things differently, leapfrogging the banking sector with the advent of mobile banking, for example, and using innovation to create growth and opportunities. This is evidence of the power of technology and in the coming years more focus needs to be placed on harnessing the power of what new technologies can offer and, as industry players, finding ways that we can better use it to create opportunities.
Organisations should start thinking now about what the implications of technology are on their own businesses. Core to this is understanding the impact it will have on the workforce. Statistics indicate that one of the top 5 labour market shifts that are affecting strategy include the changing workforce, at 43%, driven strongly by workforce technology. The automation of services is a key change that we are, and will continue to, witness. While 39% of employees demonstrate concern about their position becoming obsolete because of such technology, it is certainly not necessarily the case.
While technology is able to replicate what once was unique to human skill in many instances, technology is complimentary and, in Botswana, where the rise of technology has happened rapidly, this is certainly no different. It is more about the intel that can be derived from such technology that will change the way we work and define specific job roles — using big data derived from technological processes to make informed decisions. The human element cannot be ignored, however, and people will still form part of the economy of the future — it is more about adding additional value to what would have been a transactional process.
The second key element of focus across Botswana is strategies that we should be looking at to improve job creation. While we know that Botswana is rife with unemployment sitting on 18.1% and an under-skilled labour force, there are certainly things we can, and should, be doing now. Job creation in a changing world means encouraging entrepreneurship and as such, this is a key pillar (Botswana’s agenda on Vision 2036; Prosperity for all, PILLAR 1 “SUSTAINBALE ECONOMIC GROWTH”) and — as it comes with numerous barriers to entry — it is up to governments and the private sector, alike, to really harness the benefits that good entrepreneurs can offer the economy and for the improvement of the local workforce in Botswana.
While the above all lends to the growth and development of the country, Botswana cannot ignore the key basic requirements that all economies need to address as a pre-requisite to successful innovation and job creation. This includes: the development of robust education, healthcare and infrastructure programmes that will enable innovation to thrive and, secondly, strong cultural shifts with regards to economic participation of women and youth, the improved pace of economic diversification and strong economic and political leadership.
