Botswana’s youth have been afforded another opportunity to build their digital and financial skills thanks to the introduction of a programme dubbed Ye! Botswana.

Switzerland-based International Trade Centre's (ITC) Youth and Trade Programme has collaborated with Botswana Innovation Hub (BIH) and Botho University launched the Ye! Botswana four-month skills building and mentoring programme.

The ITC’s strategic objective for 2021 is to equip 100,000 young people with market-relevant skills globally.

With the first cohort of 40 youth entrepreneurs, activities at Ye! Botswana kicked off this month under the guidance of local and international experts from the ITC, BIH and various partners.

“The youth entrepreneurs who participate in this programme showed a strong desire to enhance their skills in the three main focus areas: digital skills, financial literacy, and market intelligence,” said Budzanani Tacheba, acting CEO at BIH.

He said the programme is sector agnostic and supports youth entrepreneurs from regions across the country.

“And due to the current public health situation, the programme will be hybrid supporting activities online and in-person,” said Tacheba.

Meanwhile Ye! Community global has more than 23,000 members online and offline and entrepreneurs from 170 countries with access to more than 300 expert mentors globally.

The beneficiaries of the Ye! Community has access to mentors of business expertise from finance to logistics and can build skills with e-courses on entrepreneurship and trade as well as webinars and virtual workshops.