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Good practice Imported

Botswana Innovation Hub — Gaborone's Government-Backed Science & Technology Park

Botswana · Gaborone · See the Botswana profile · See the Gaborone profile

Evidence: Descriptive / self-reported Top 54% 67/100 · Ask Evidence Copilot about this practice

Botswana's first government-backed science & technology park pairs a National Technology Transfer Office and start-up incubator with tenant leasing in ICT, biotech and clean-tech; an independent World Bank review found real activity but a persistent investment-readiness gap.

109 tenants (from 89)
Park tenants (FY2015/16)
60 start-ups
Incubator portfolio (2021)
P12M to 8 of 106 applicants
Kitso Ya Setso fund allocation (2024)
Botswana Innovation Hub — Gaborone's Government-Backed Science & Technology Park

Details

Maturity
Established
Promoter
Botswana Innovation Hub (BIH) / Botswana Digital & Innovation Hub (BDIH), Ministry of Tertiary Education, Research, Science and Technology
Period
2010–present
Keywords
Science & technology park, ICT, biotechnology, clean technology, technology transfer

Context

Botswana Innovation Hub (BIH), rebranded Botswana Digital & Innovation Hub in the 2020s, is Botswana's first government-backed science and technology park, established in 2010 on a 57-hectare campus near Gaborone under the Ministry of Tertiary Education, Research, Science and Technology. It delivers knowledge transfer via tenant leasing, the First Steps Venture Centre incubator (since 2013), a National Technology Transfer Office (2014) and the Botswana Innovation Fund (2017).

Results

Park membership grew from 89 to 109 tenants in FY2015/16. A December 2021 World Bank diagnostic found the First Steps incubator managing a portfolio of 60 start-ups from roughly 75 applications a year, and the Innovation Fund supporting 15 companies with conditional grants exceeding P1 million each. In 2024 the Kitso Ya Setso indigenous-knowledge fund allocated P12 million across 8 of 106 applicants.

Conclusions

The World Bank's independent review is candid about limits: incubation programmes 'have not yet produced a cadre of founders that can raise capital from the private sector,' and only an estimated 10-20 of roughly 1,000 tech-adjacent Botswana companies are considered investment-ready.

Implementation
Indicative cost
High (€500k–€5M)
Time to results
Long (> 3 years)
Staffing & skills
National Technology Transfer Office staff, First Steps Venture Centre incubator managers

Conditions for success

  • Dedicated legal entity with ministry backing
  • Co-location with international airport and anchor tenants
  • Dedicated early-stage innovation fund

Common failure modes

  • Incubated founders unable to raise private capital
  • Flagship buildings under-occupied years after target completion

Where it fits

Governance type
national government agency
Scale
national
Income level
upper-middle-income

Commonly funded by

National / regional programmes

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Data sources

Where this practice's information was retrieved from, and when.

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