31 Mar 2025

Royal City International Ministries has embarked on a community empowerment drive to drill aspiring entrepreneurs and the business community to be successful.

Speaking in an interview during the church’s business seminar dubbed ‘Billionaire Academy’ recently, the caretaker Apostle Dr Kabelo Barnabas said high unemployment rate had challenged the church to come up with the initiative to create employment opportunities.

He said young entrepreneurs should have a business mindset in order to maximise output, navigate the complexities of building and scaling a successful enterprise, encompassing strategic thinking, resource management and risk assessment in achieving crucial goals.

The first edition of the Billionaire Academy, the first of its kind in Botswana, is expected to transform the economy by producing young entrepreneurs that would create employment for themselves and other citizens, Dr Barnabas said.

He was happy with the turnout and said the event, which attracted people from all walks of life and corners of the country, would be held annually or twice a year to create a platform for aspiring entrepreneurs to turn their dreams into reality, as well as make businesses more agile.

The seminar that was facilitated by experts from various business fields, each crucial for company success, imparted life skills to participants that would enable them to effectively respond to daily challenges. Striking a balance between a sound business idea and financial resources to start a business, Dr Barnabas said, was important to have knowledge in the domain of finance as well as opportunities available.

He said the seminar created a platform for networking that would assist entrepreneur aspirants to write business proposals and eventually turn their dreams into a reality, arguing that the church abound with people well versed in business.

For his part, Royal City International Ministries’ Pastor Thuto Thuto, acknowledged the role of church in empowering people spiritually but sometimes left the business aspect behind hence the ‘Billionaire Academy’ initiative. He was of the view that for the church to sponsor the gospel, such could be achieved through raising entrepreneurs since it could not be achievable through the working class only.

Karowe Mine general manager, Mr Johane Mchive highlighted best strategies to overcome barriers through working around limitations, obstacles, challenges, suppression and problems to gently push and transcend boundaries. 

He also touched on the importance of effectively tracking progress, establishing regular intervals for checking on goals and using the checkpoints to assessing achievements and making adjustments to the approach if necessary. Mr Mchive opined that excellence was not an act but a habit, thus imploring entrepreneurs to have an excellent track record and being accountable for their actions.

Sharing a success formula, Mr Bokang Proctor of BK Proctor clothing line advised those aspiring to venture into business to know their target audience, analyse customer data, conduct market research and analyse competitors to identify demographics, psychographics and behaviours that aligned with the entrepreneurs’ product or service. He shared that the ingredients for a successful business was defining the market and cultivating it, arguing that businesses failed because of failure to conduct a thorough market research. ENDS