27 Apr 2015

Usually, after obtaining the highest qualification of some sort most graduates, even those with more than average academic endowments tend to go back home, sit idle and wait for some opening somewhere on the horizon.

The graduate assumes the qualification obtained is not just a means to the end but an end in itself but unfortunately, some of them usually either wait far too long to start life or end up blue on the face.

But education at best should be an orthodox tool of power that those with smarts like the 24-year-old Mr Phenyo Abotseng of Kanye can use to change at least, their own world. Ironically, some fresh graduates when they enter organisations on first appointment or as interns, they can immediately pick what they think is dismally wrong and needs to be changed in their opinion, because they come armed with a system of power called education. 

Yet, most of them after the end of the internship, as the case may be, still elect to fold arms and wait for a job interview somewhere despite the available youth empowerment initiatives. But, armed with a degree in Business Administration from the University of Botswana (UB) and by far the highest learning institution in Botswana, the most common temptation for many, would have been to look for a job. 

But for Mr Abotseng, who comes from an Agric-oriented family and knowing the value of his education, decided to start his own business and become his own boss.

And one would not have remotely guessed in a hundred years that the sparkling cabbage garden that immediately greeted us when we drove across the Abotseng fields within the Lokabane cluster fence near Kanngwe could belong to this, reserved, but undoubtedly brainy young man. 

Like still water, he runs right down deep.  He had sat, quietly the whole time through my interview earlier with his father, Mr Mogakolodi Abotseng also a farmer, as if to say children should not be heard but seen. 

And when his turn finally turned, one could realise that Mr Abotseng junior, sporting a somewhat townie swagger coupled with an obvious flair for English language, is wired for success. Bright colours like red and orange are usually associated with a revolution. 

With an orange t-shirt he was wearing, he seemed to be nailing his true colours to the mast: a rebel with a cause. A cause to revolutionise farming.  A cause to feed the nation. A free thinker he is, he enjoys letting his imagination take flight and executing a good idea that pops into his head, he said.

“Most of us are victims of the system, we grow up being told: go to school get good grades, go to university, get a job, marry, have children and die.  That’s why it’s rare to find a child who wants to become an entrepreneur,”he said.

For him, it has always been a matter of time before he gravitated towards farming in one way or another. 

He said the P100 000 funding he got from government courtesy of the Youth Development Fund (YDF) last year was a push for him down the high road because he had already started a trial run the previous year as a vegetable farmer, albeit small, on his own. 

“When I finished school, I also looked at the current job market conditions and the levels of entrepreneurship and instead of using my degree to find a job I decided to create a job for myself,”he explained with a beaming smile. 

Mr Abotseng said he was confident that he could apply the business management skills he had acquired from school on his farming enterprise. “Under YDF,  I haven’t harvested a thing yet, I’m still dealing with challenges and coming up with mitigating measures for now. 

It’s quite an exciting challenge because it’s both business and leisure for me, there is no pay cheque and I know full well that I have to make a pay cheque for myself,”he said.

The young entrepreneur has so far secured market for his produce in Mmathethe, Metlojane and environs and sees himself growing and becoming more competitive in the not too distant future. 

 “Although I do love the corporate world I never see myself going out to find employment anytime in future, I rather see myself giving lectures part time to lend my experiences and expertise, “he projected.  He also wants to see himself expanding the operation so it funds his other business ideas in the next few years. 

The visionary food producer said he also wants to introduce rare crops in the area and move into food processing in the near future with a view to tap deeper into the market.

“Success for me is following your heart, identifying something you love that you can do even without pay and everything else will fall into place,” he shared. ENDS