News

University of Botswana (UB), Vice Chancellor, Professor David Norris has revealed universities are vital engines of innovation playing crucial role in economic prosperity in modern age through research and fostering entrepreneurial ecosystems.

The 23rd June, 2025, marked the official commencement of Botswana Sandbox Programme and engagement visit by representatives from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), which took place in the University’s Council Chamber. The Botswana Sandbox Programme is a strategic national initiative established through collaboration between the Government of Botswana and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, designed as living innovation lab. It also facilitates the co-creation, testing and scaling of transformative solutions addressing Botswana’s development priorities. It further serves as dynamic platform for cross-sectoral experimentation, entrepreneurial learning and policy innovation- bridging academia, government and industry.

Welcoming the guests, Professor Norris highlighted that, universities’ contribution towards economic prosperities includes generating new ideas, creating technologies, developing skilled workforce, collaboration, developing new knowledge and contributing to the growth of regional economies. He stated that recently, the most successful and wealthy are knowledge companies that are birthed from universities such as Apple, Google, and Facebook. He noted that developed countries are thriving due to functioning ecosystem, partnership between institution of high learning and industries aligned with government’s development intelligence as well as communities. He stated that UB has a huge responsibility to lead the country towards economic prosperity.

The Permanent Secretary, Ministry of High Education, Prof Nelson Torto appealed towards local institution of high learning to upscale production skilled workforce that can adapt to new technologies and contribute to economic growth. Furthermore, Prof Torto appealed to local universities to rein- fence programmes for research intensification and collaboration among research institutions.

Further, the Permanent Secretary, Ministry of Trade and Entrepreneurship, Mr Olesitse Masimega said the MIT development Sandbox programme at UB and Botswana International University of Science and Technology (BUIST) aims to build robust pipeline for students’ entrepreneurship technology driven problem solving and scalable adventures. He stressed that, the programme is also designed to foster institution collaboration, knowledge transfer and healthy competition. Furthermore, he said the programme intension is to shift the paradigm of students as passive recipients of education, but to recognise them as creators of economic and social value.

Meanwhile, Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), Executive Director, Dr Jinane Abounadi said the MIT programme was launched in 2016 to lower the barriers encountered by students while they aspire to learn about entrepreneurship and embark on innovative solutions. She said universities in the United States play a huge role in innovation and economic boost and research commercialisation. She noted that, in 2014 MIT produced thirty thousand companies with a total of 4, 6 million jobs and annual revenue of two trillion dollars. She further highlighted that 23 percent of MIT alumni companies are funded outside US, and they have impact globally.  She said MIT programme is open to all students and support all start-ups in all phases of their journey as well as with expertise. She said students are also provided with entrepreneurship skills.

This collaboration confirms that this undertaking is indeed a pivotal step towards fostering innovation, driving economic diversification and building a knowledge – based  economy in Botswana.