Thelma Obakeng

The University of Botswana Foundation on the 9^th February 2023, awarded some scholarships to 23 high-flying students to pursue their Master’s Degree programmes at the University, as it has been for the past twenty-two years.

The award ceremony was held at the magnificent UB Conference Centre, which is poised to be a money spinner as the University explores third stream income generating sources in its quest to become a centre of excellence and innovation.

The Chairperson of the UB Foundation, the motor magnate and ruling party treasurer, Satar Dada, said the 23 students were drawn from diverse faculties of the university, two of which were from the Northern Trust, 12 were second year Master’s Degree students to be sponsored for a year and nine full term Master’s Degree recipients.

He said that going forward the foundation will cover full tuition for the Master’s programmes. He congratulated the scholarship recipients, saying that education can open doors for them and urged the recipients to use their education to diversify the economy of the country.

The same counsel was echoed by UB Vice Chancellor, Professor David Norris, who said that knowledge commodities are very important, adding that they expect universities to be driving the economy of the country.

Prof Norris gave an example of Australian universities, saying that over a billion people worldwide depend on research and innovation that comes out of Australian universities.

Another example is Kenya, which has attracted big companies like Microsoft. When there is research and innovation, industries are attracted.

Prof Norris said the UBF scholarships were very important and that they were keen to increase the cohort of their postgraduate students to at least 30% at minimum, beating the current slightly above 10% students being enrolled for their Masters, which he deemed very low.

 He appreciated the award recipients and the UB Foundation trustees for this initiative.

In addition to the scholarships handover Dada mentioned that six hundred (600) marketing books will be donated by Cambridge Marketing College in the United Kingdom to be used by the University of Botswana students.

He also thanked the UBF trustees for always finding time to attend such events and giving the students moral support, as well as assisting deserving students with full tuition for them to achieve their dreams.

He appealed to both the local and international business community to continue supporting the University through the UBF, saying that it would help UB achieve its vision and mission of being a centre of academic excellence globally as well as providing quality education and innovation.

One of the UBF scholarship recipients, Onneile Motlhaapula, a Master of Science in environmental science second year postgraduate student under the Faculty of Science, said it was an honour and a privilege to receive the scholarship.

She thanked the UB Foundation for making it possible for her to achieve her dream, saying that she will now be able to focus solely on her studies instead of juggling between school and extra jobs as she did when she was still self-sponsored.

For her part, Northern Trust scholarship recipient, Pretty Tsokedi, a first year student studying Master of Arts in Economics, also thanked her sponsors for providing them with such a generous award.

She said the scholarship was more than just a validation of their hard work and dedication, but a testament to the belief in the transformative power of education and the University’s mandate to be a centre of excellence.

In her closing remarks, Mascom Wireless’ Deputy Chief Financial Officer, Peo Pillar thanked the UBF, Northern Trust, Bank of Botswana and the prestigious guests for coming to celebrate with the students, saying that the support that they accord the students will go a long way in motivating them to achieve more.

She encouraged the students to work hard and make their sponsors proud.

Other guests who graced the event included the Governor of the Bank of Botswana Moses Pelaelo, as well as UBF trustees Emelda Mathe and Sasara George, the former Ambassador to China and presently the Communications Manager at Unik Construction company.

(C) TPA 2023