BOTHO UNIVERSITY TO OPEN IN GHANA
From just one classroom, five staff members and 12 students in 1997, Botho University (BU) has grown in leaps and bounds to be one of the leading institutions in Botswana.
Now, 10 years after attaining their university status, the institution is eyeing an expansion into the rest of the African continent, after successful operations in eswatini, Lesotho and Namibia.
Though the plans are still at early stages, intention is to have a fully operational campus by next year in Ghana, developments which were confirmed by Managing Director of the Institution; Dr Sheela Raja Ram during BU’S 25-year anniversary celebrations on Friday.
“Our identity is much embodied in our name ‘ Botho’ - a quintessential African human value system that we work hard to live up to in our daily work. We are in our early stages of setting up in Ghana such that we continue exporting Botswana developed programmes to Southern Africa and West Africa, starting next year. African higher education is at a crossroads - an urgent need for high levels of knowledge and skills - and swelling demand for higher education but rapidly dwindling public funds,” said Raja Ram.
Officiating at the celebration, Minister of Communications, Knowledge and Technology, Thulaganyo Segokgo, said he is delighted that the institution started from humble beginnings. “This move for setting up in Ghana makes this institution the first University in Botswana to have a physical presence in West Africa. This geographic expansion to other countries is aligned to the government’s efforts to create an exportled economy which has a direct contribution to the national gross domestic product. This phenomenal development also ties in very well with government’s strife towards Botswana’s transition from resourcebased to knowledge-based. Therefore, BU has leveraged this opportunity by placing a strong focus on excellent leadership and innovation,” said Segokgo.
The institution was founded in 1997 as NIIT and then later Botho College, the institution now has mature presence in Botswana, Lesotho and growing campuses in eswatini and Namibia. Currently, BU has a student population of 5 000 and offers fulltime and distance learning programmes in disciplines of Accounting, Business, Computing, Engineering, Hospitality, Health and eeucation.