The Hub works closely with innovation ecosystem players to commercialise innovative and tech driven solutions. The Hub does this by:
- Fostering a culture of innovation in Botswana and providing innovation capacity building opportunities
- Providing technology entrepreneurship services to build innovative and tech-driven businesses
- Providing seed funding to develop and pilot prototypes and facilitating access to venture/commercial funding to scale the innovations
- Offering technology transfer office services to identify, protect and monetise Intellectual Property (IP)
- Serving as the co-creation arm of the Government of Botswana to deliver citizencentric and digitised public services
The BDIH owns two subsidiary companies, the first being the Botswana Innovation Hub Property (Pty) Ltd (BIHP). BIHP leverages the strategic infrastructure that includes the Science and Technology Park and the fit-for-purpose flagship Icon Building to facilitate innovation. This is achieved by attracting like-minded, innovative and technology driven companies and institutions to establish their operations in the Park and creating opportunities for collaboration and exchange of ideas.
Botswana Innovation Hub Investments (BIHI) is the BDIH’s second subsidiary. BIHI is a special purpose vehicle established to serve as the Hub’s investment arm. Its role is to attract, invest in and manage commercially viable and technology related investments.
Top Innovations Campaign
Classmate Online – Thuso Othusitse
Classmate Online, is an inclusive, Social E-Learning platform for students and educators to access educational content and promote collaborative learning.
Q. What problem are you solving?
A. Poor academic results because of education that is limited to the classroom teaching environment.
Q. What is your solution?
A. An inclusive, social E-Learning platform for students and educators to access educational content and promote collaborative learning. We have eliminated the geographical divide that exist between students in rural and urban areas, and those in public and private schools.
Q. What is innovative about your project/business?
A. The availability of educational content to any learner, anywhere. The content is inclusive because it can be consumed by the visually impaired through the text-to-speech functionality. We also use gamification of educational content to make it more interesting for the learners.
Q. What inspired it?
A. The fact that social media is transforming the way we communicate. I thought, why not make education consumption social and interactive too? We want to disrupt the education system by giving learners access to educational material and allowing teachers to complement their classroom setup teaching with virtual classroom, all thanks to technology.
Q. Who is your target market?
A. Learners from primary school level to senior secondary schools and the education fraternity stakeholders.
Q. What social and economic impact is your project/business envisaged to make?
A. Currently, we are at a pilot stage with Gaborone Senior Secondary School and we have experienced 9,000 hits from 793 registered active users out of a total of 1,400 learners. By mid 2020, we would have enrolled all the 34 Senior Schools, 257 Junior Schools and 754 Primary Schools into the platform. We expect significant improvements in terms or academic results attributable to usage of Classmate Online as per the users’ feedback.
Q. What type of skills does your team have to be unearthing this type of innovation?
A. A team of three is fully dedicated on this project. A Business Developer with IT and a business background, an Architecture by profession who is running the operations of the business and a qualified Programmer.
Q. What challenges are you facing in your business?
A. Unavailability of content from teachers which we would like to mitigate by offering incentives. Learners are not allowed to use gadgets at school. We are also seeking financial support to commercialise this solution.
Q. What is the long-term vision of your solution?
A. To conquer Africa by year 2023 and make Classmate Online available throughout the African continent.
Q. What assistance are you receiving from BIH and other stakeholders?
A. We are currently in the pre-commercialisation stage and are receiving mentorship from Botswana Innovation Hub. We recently entered into an agreement with Botswana Telecommunications Corporation who will provide internet connectivity at different schools. We are also working closely with the Department of Information & Technology, as well as the Ministry of Basic Education to source and prepare content.
Q. Where are you based for those interested in the service/product?
A. We operate from the BIH offices, they offer hot desking facilities where entrepreneurs are able to utilise workstations, Wi-Fi internet and printing services.
Q. Do you have any presence on social media?
A. Of course, we use social media to promote Classmate Online activities. Our Facebook page is Classmate Online.
Q. Inspire fellow citizens to innovate; what would you say?
A. Anyone can innovate. It’s not about your profession or educational background, it is about finding solutions that are addressing challenges that we face as a people. In the same breath, always consider possibilities of scaling up the innovation to the world.
Nubian Seed – Tuduetso Tebape
Nubian Seed is a green beauty manufacturer of authentic natural & organic personal care products made from indigenous raw materials, sustainably sourced from around Africa; to make high quality, toxin free products.
Q. What opportunity are you seizing?
A. We realised that there was a lack of shea butter products in the Botswana market, if there are any, they were hard to find or very expensive.
Q. What is your solution?
A. We are making available a locally manufactured green and organic beauty products that understand the African skin because they are made from African natural ingredients.
Q. What is innovative about your project/business?
A. Nubian seed is not just a cosmetic brand, it is a celebration of a fusion of biotechnology using indigenous plants and shining a spotlight on Africa’s rich indigenous raw materials. We source our raw material from all over Africa, for example, the hibiscus flower from Ghana that we combine with morula kernels right from home – Botswana.
Q. What inspired your project?
A. We were inspired by our own love for the shea butter product when we were living abroad. When we came back home, we realised that it was hard to find, then we thought why not use our own African ingredients to make our own shea butter. We tested the market’s appetite with a few that we made by selling to friends and family. They loved the products.
Q. Who is your target market?
A. Primarily women between the age of 25 and 50 years in urban areas in Botswana, Africa, the UK and the USA. This is a niche market that is health and beauty conscious. Men and kids who are catered for by our ‘for family” range of products from dandruff shampoo to lip balm.
Q. What social and/or economic impact is your project/business making?
A. We are sourcing our ingredients from local community women in Botswana and some in Ghana whom we are empowering as suppliers in the cosmetic manufacturing value chain.
Q. How many people are employed in your business? What type of skills are there in your business?
A. Nubian Seed is currently operated by three people; a legal practitioner by profession who serves as a Co-Director, a Communications Specialist, who is also a co-Director who has skills in packaging and marketing the products and a third employee who also works on Marketing and Sales with a qualification in Media Studies.
Q. What challenges are you facing in your business?
A. Lack of operating space as a result of lack of financing. If we could get an operating space, we would ramp up production and sell bigger quantities and increase our workforce. We are able to inject some money into our cash flow from the Tony Elumelu funding of USD5,000.00 that we won in 2019. Another challenge in our business is the customs and logistics as we source some raw material from other African countries, however, one of the co-founders now has a seat on the Technical Cosmetics Committee that is developing standards of organic cosmetics under BOBS. It is our hope that the challenge of transportation and customs duties will be addressed.
Q. What is the long-term vision of your solution?
A. Our plan is to venture into raw material processing so as to reduce our costs of production. We want to be Africa’s green and organic cosmetics. We want to be a household name.
Q. What assistance are you receiving from BIH?
A. BIH has been instrumental in Nubian’s development and growth. We are in the BIH Acceleration programme where we are receiving coaching, mentorship, access to partner programme such as the Females in Biosciences Businesses. Through BIH, we have been to international pitching competitions that exposed us to potential markets. The skills we have acquired in the BIH Acceleration programme are attributable to the sales we have achieved so far.
Q. Where are you based for those interested in the service/product?
A. Nubian Seed products are available at one of our partner stores called Mmamontle located at Molapo Crossing and also at Five Opulent Spa at Extension 9, Gaborone. We also do delivery orders through a WhatsApp number: (+267) 770 98440.
Q. Do you have any presence on social media?
A. Our Facebook page is Nubian Seed and we are also on Instagram @Nubian Seed.
Q. Inspire fellow citizens to innovate; what would you say?
A. Just start. If you have an idea that you believe in; just start. Don’t wake up at 90 years old and say, “I never tried”. Always strive for the best and as they say; fail forward.
Mohiri – Thato Kasongo
Mohiri is a personalised job alert service that helps connect users to job opportunities through mobile alerts.
Q. What problem are you solving?
A. The plight of unemployment in Botswana.
Q. What is your solution?
A. A mobile alert service that connects job seekers to job opportunities by matching the job alert to the job seeker’s profile.
Q. What is innovative about your project/business?
A. The service is unique and innovative because it is an AI driven assistant and a subscriber gets alerts that are relevant to their profile thus reducing the need to keep up with information/adverts overload in newspapers and websites.
Q. What inspired it?
A. We were stimulated by the high levels of unemployment in our country. Then we worked on a technology that would solve the problem by harnessing the use of the internet and technology.
Q. Who is your target market?
A. Low to medium skilled job seekers, for example electricians, market intelligent analysts, tutors, farm workers, sales representatives and medium skilled jobs at graduate entry levels. We receive job adverts from any employer who wants to recruit for low to medium skilled positions. We have also partnered with HR Business Partners to offer an end-to-end process of recruitment.
Q. What social and economic impact is your project/business envisaged to make?
A. We have reached 270 000 people every week that benefit from content related jobs. From a job creation point of view, our team has grown from two people to seven people.
Q. What type of skills does your team have to be unearthing this type of innovation?
A. We are a team of seven with a diverse skills set i.e. computer programming, graphic design, digital marketing and journalism.
Q. Where are you based for those interested in the service/product?
A. Our offices are within the Botswana Innovation Hub Icon building.
Q. What challenges are you facing in your business?
A. Our biggest challenge is market penetration. We are in an industry where a superior service platform such as Mohiri is competing with traditional beliefs where employers still perceive newspapers as an effective means of advertising despite their limited circulation and cost.
Another challenge we are facing is lack of funding to grow the business in terms of resources. We need more resources to market the solution to more potential employers and further equip our back-end operations.
Q. What is the long-term vision of your solution?
A. We want to grow Mohiri into Southern Africa’s biggest jobs service platform. We are using Botswana as a test base for the platform with a goal to scale up to countries with higher potential in terms of population and unemployment rates such as Zambia and Tanzania.
Q. What assistance are you receiving from BIH and other stakeholders?
A. We are in the BIH Acceleration Programme where we are receiving coaching, mentorship, access to partner programmes such as the Southern Africa Innovation Support (SAIS) Programme. Through BIH, we have been to international pitching competitions that exposed us to potential markets. The skills we have acquired in the BIH Acceleration programme are attributable to the market penetration we have achieved so far.
Q. Do you have any presence on social media?
A. We are available on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and LinkedIn in as Mohiri.
Q. Inspire fellow citizens to innovate; what would you say?
A. Botswana is very ripe for disruption. Old systems are ineffective but remain unchallenged. Any field you can think of be it Marketing, Finance, or HR needs innovation for relevance and survival, therefore, there is a lot of opportunities for anyone to innovate.
Aminaami Access – Likius Likius
A web-based visitor management and feedback system that harnesses the power of technology.
Q. What problem are you solving?
A. The disconnect between a customer and an organisation resulting in poor service delivery due to poor customer–organisation method of interaction such as registration books and paper feedback sheets.
Q. What is your solution?
A. A web-based visitor management and feedback system that replaces registration books and paper feedback sheets with the ability to receive remote/online meeting requests.
Q. What is innovative about your project/business?
A. The system can be accessed at the Reception (in the premises via a Tablet and remotely for the customers’ homes or offices. The home/office access will be available 24/7. The system also has a backend where officers/departments can access client interactions at any given time.
Q. What inspired it?
A. I was approached by a client who said she wanted a hassle-free-system-based visitor registration and would also like to receive visitor feedback. She presented a problem and after some research and a few trials, my team and I brought forth a solution.
Q. Who is your target market?
A. Government, Parastatals and Large Corporates with a minimum of 20 visitors per day.
Q. What social and economic impact is your project/business making?
A. Botswana is ranked very low in terms of service delivery. We are helping organisations harness the power of technology by collecting data and responding to customer needs. We intend to make the product available online where clients can create accounts remotely. This will give the product a global appeal.
Q. What type of skills does your team have to be unearthing this type of innovation?
A. A total of 7seven employees. We have two developers, two Digital Marketers, Admin, Assistant and an Accountant.
Q. What assistance are you receiving from BIH?
A. We have benefited from the acceleration courses such as business management that BIH offers. The works have also been instrumental in increasing our knowledge and networking us with the market. BIH is also assisting us with office space, workstations, access to internet and printing services.
Q. What challenges are you facing in your business?
A. Limited capital. We would like to hire more skilled personnel to develop the product further. The trials that we conduct with potential clients cost money, therefore we suffer from customer apathy because most customers would like to experience the product before they fully commit to procuring.
Q. Do you have any presence on social media?
A. We do have presence on social media. Facebook: @AminaamiAccessBw and Twitter: @AminamiBw
Q. Inspire fellow citizens to innovate; what would you say?
A. On reflection, it is a good thing that Botswana is still lagging behind in terms of innovative services, this presents everyone with an opportunity to adopt new ideas and localise them to suit our environment.
