“Reclaiming Africa’s Narrative: A Conversation with H.E. President Dr. Mokgweetsi E.K. Masisi of Botswana”

In the inaugural episode of “A Legacy of Purpose: Conversations with Dina H. Sherif,” Dina engages in a powerful and candid conversation with His Excellency President Dr. Mokgweetsi E. K. Masisi of the Republic of Botswana. Together, they explore profound themes of leadership, innovation, and legacy-buildingas President Masisi guides Botswana through one of Africa’s most visionary transitions—from a resource-dependent economy to a dynamic, knowledge-based future. 

The discussion explores the President’s belief in purpose-driven leadership, the need to reject outdated perceptions of Africa, and his commitment to making sustainable decisions that will shape the continent’s future. He shares insights into Botswana’s ambitious projects in entrepreneurship, innovation, and science and technology, including its upcoming collaboration with the Legatum Center at The Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) through, positioning the country as a hub for entrepreneurship and innovation on the continent.

This episode sets the tone for the podcast, highlighting how purposeful leadership and bold action can leave a lasting legacy of change and progress for future generations.

Key Topics Discussed:

• Botswana’s Visionary Transition: Moving from a resource-based economy to a knowledge-driven future focusing on innovation and human capital.
• Purpose-Driven Leadership: President Masisi shares his philosophy of leading with purpose and humility, driven by a mission to serve the greater good.
• Resetting Africa’s Narrative: President Masisi reflects on the need to reject negative stereotypes and position Africa as a center of innovation and talent.
• Innovation and Resilience: How Botswana plans to lead with technology and innovation, driving economic growth and creating opportunities for African entrepreneurs.
• A Legacy of Disruption: President Masisi’s hope to be remembered as a leader who disrupted the status quo for Africa’s collective prosperity.

Host: Dina Sherif
Produced by Donovan Beck

For Media Inquiries:
Donovan Beck

Communications and Storytelling Coordinator

Legatum Center for Development and Entrepreneurship

Sloan School of Management
Massachusetts Institute of Technology
292 Main St, E38, 5th Floor, Cambridge, MA 02142
don_beck@mit.edu

Transcript

Dina Sherif: 0:09

Music. So it's an honor to welcome His Excellency President, maitzi, Eric Masisi, to this podcast hosted actually by the government of Botswana. Thank you for that. Now, I met His Excellency, President, Masisi, in January of this year. Wasn't too long ago, and ever since, we've been on this incredible journey together. And I could really talk for hours about your Excellency's long career in public service and in education, but what I really want to say is, from the minute I met you, what I witnessed is a man who has a deep love for his country and a deep love for the people of Botswana, and the dedication to the future of your people is not just humbling, but it also led me to want to do everything I can to support this vision that you have for Botswana and by extension, like me, you are very proud African, and you want to transform the narrative of Africa, where we both come from, to a place that is dynamic, exciting and also home of innovation and technology. I would say, you know, in the world that we live in today, it's very rare to find people who really walk the talk. And you, President Masisi, you not only walk the talk, but you walk the talk with a lot of purpose and grace and kindness. And that's very rare. So I want to say, welcome. Welcome to our podcast. We're very excited to have this conversation with you and to talk a little bit about Botswana and your vision for your country and for Africa. So we'll just get started. So I really wanted to start off the podcast with a question about leadership and public service. You've been in public service your entire life. You've been a teacher in an education. You really your entire career has been about service. So what I want to ask you is, what does leadership really mean to you in the context of public service, and what does it mean to you more broadly in the context of Africa, because in the current moment, and I was just speaking to our foundry fellows about this, there is a dearth of leadership globally and on the continent, and I think it's really important to take a pause and talk about what leadership really means.

H.E President Masisi: 2:38

Well. Thank you very much. Dina, the magic of Egypt coming together with the magic from Botswana, it should make for an exciting recipe. But you know that, having been said, it's a real pleasure for me to be part of this podcast, and I'm very happy to answer your question on leadership. For me, leadership really involves a number of criteria attributes. Most important is that when one is placed in the rare privilege, an honorable position of leading everything you consider must, first and foremost, be in the public interest. But that's not sufficient on its own, because not only should it be the public interest, it requires you out of analysis and appropriate your values to decide the prioritization of those things that matter the most as they affect the outcomes in the public interest, it also means the channeling of your energies, the channeling of your talents and your sheer willpower to chart the course. It involves risk, but it means you are also missioned and unafraid, but clear and level headed. And so when I approach issues of the public service and I'm required to take a decision or a position, these are foremost in my mind. What good does it bring to the majority, and is it sustainable? Can I defend it? My conscience is clear. I provide the leadership required. Yeah,

Dina Sherif: 4:55

I love how you talked about how leadership is a privilege. And I once heard you say in a talk that leadership means you have to drop your ego. What is what does that mean for those who are listening?

H.E President Masisi: 5:13

You know if, if you carry your ego around with you, not only can it be a distraction, it can be an annoyance to others. You know, our ego is really a manifestation of self worth and value, sometimes and most times, actually exaggerated to a point of potential annoyance to others. And so when you drop your ego, you allow for either the egos of others to prevail, but you don't allow your ego to cloud your judgment and irritate others. And therefore, you know, turn people away, turn ideas away, or turn resources away. So your ego, as an individual, you are required to kill it only just for purpose of achieving what you need.

Dina Sherif: 6:08

Yeah, I love that. I love that, and it's so needed. So I want to ask you about the story of Botswana. It's a unique one, and I remember in another speech that you gave three years ago at the Africa America Institute gala dinner, you spoke about how in 1966 but when you became independent, Botswana had only three kilometers of tarred highways, roadways. It was considered the fourth poorest country in the world. And a little over 50 years later, which is really the span of my lifetime, Botswana has transformed, and it's transformed into the continent's beacon of stability and prosperity. You've transitioned to becoming a middle income country you have a dream of now transitioning to a high income country. Can you share with us, in brief, for those listening in the story of Botswana from your perspective, because you've witnessed it all from independence and where do you want to take the country next?

H.E President Masisi: 7:19

You know you correctly sum it up, Botswana was one of the poorest countries on Mother Earth when it became independent. And it was not new poverty. It was old poverty. So it was multi generational. We were resource poor. We're capital poor, we're human resource poor. We're poor in every respect, water deprived, you name it. And the reason in part, was because our former colonizers, the Brits, had not found anything worth investing in, hardly and so we had gotten used to, over generations, irking out a living measly out of very little that we could master. And therefore frugality became a second nature to us. Optimism and hope, steely resilience became part of our DNA. And so when after independence, we were fortunate enough to through exploration, a mining company discovered diamonds, thank goodness, they were not discovered before independence, that's right. But after they discovered it, they had the view and attitude. They would just tell us about it as the administration, and they would be given a license to mine, and they would mine and take all the profits. And we said, oh, we have a policy. And the policy was really born out of mixed economy credentials, which then out of advisement from some Canadian experts, was that the state would intervene. The state would be an investor in this entity. So the state decided they would allow or talk to company to co own the rights to mining, and that we knew entity given permission to mine. And so the state authorized the mining, the leasing of the land and the mining operations, and also derived benefit out of the mining operations, because it co invested based on its assets. And that's how the joint venture between De Beers, who is a company, and the Botswana government, formed debswana, which initially was hugely skewed towards De Beers, but over time, we were able to get to a 5050, partnership, and that is what made the difference. So the suaveness of accepting advice, embracing it, the transparency of declaring this, the opportunity we gave to private sector to invest in trust us. Even though we admitted we knew nothing about mining, we knew nothing about, you know, beneficiation and what have you. And negotiations were just novice. But it went on for many years, and that's why, after every so many years, we renegotiate the agreement. And the latest agreement that we renegotiated from which for which we've agreed in principle, the major elements of it we are deriving much more than we used to. That's what charted a way forward. So I think we have learned over time to be bold. We have learned over time to be committed to those things that would work for us, and we then realized that we could not continue to invest the same way we're investing, which essentially was investment in raw materials, investment in trade and processed no value addition. And with the mind, we had learned that if you take a human being raw, take them to school, they are able to think new things, do new things, generate new ideas, and provide services unique and distinctly different from what they could otherwise. You could do the same thing to products. You can say to critical minerals. You can do the same thing to the human mind. And so we have decided that we were going to value add all our raw materials and derive more value of it. We have decided that we're going to build capacity human talent in the negotiation for this. And now we get into an era, exciting as it is, of innovation, science and tech, deep research, and when we now got to partner with MIT, the world's premier innovation university, cutting edge research, We thought, we belong here. We're not going anywhere. And so we want to partner with MIT to generate the ecosystem for this research, the ecosystem for this innovation, and generate new products different from the diamonds, different from our beef, different from our copper or coal, what have you that we too, can compete with the world.

Dina Sherif: 12:28

And this was done under this very radical, bold plan, which you called reset and reclaim agenda. Those are bold words. I'm sure they were chosen very intentionally. Why choose these words? And I'm a person who believes that word words matter. They matter, and they give a lot of meaning to our identity, to our pride and in our where we come from. And you chose these words reset and reclaim. Why was that and why was that important to use those words in the context of Botswana?

H.E President Masisi: 13:05

You know, we have a history, as you said, that's approaching close to 60 years of development. I'm the fifth president of the country, and I've had the benefit of hindsight. We also have been devastated before by a devastating epidemic HIV and AIDS, and a very wise, courageous leader we had in President who, when we were hit hardest by that, did not bury his head in the sand, he went out to the world fully realized that we could not help ourselves on our own, and proclaimed and sought help, because Botswana faced as serious in existential threat. We could be wiped off the face of the earth. We are very small population, poor and very vulnerable, yeah. Fast forward. The second pandemic hit us, covid 19. Covid 19. Who's the president? It's me. And so we had to delve deep. We retreated. It began with my private office staff, and got into deep thought. And out of that, I came to the conclusion that we could never achieve our long term intentions as espoused in our long term vision 2036 which was to transition from an upper middle income economy, which had been in for the last 25 years, the upper middle income trap, as you might know it, if we did not do some things radically differently, particularly borrowing from the shock of the covid 19 and so that's what we decided to do. We're going to. Reset we're going to reclaim. And in doing that, we're going to take a deep breath and literally shed off some things that we think won't get us to where we need to, and laser focus on those things that could. And that's how the reset reclaim agenda came about, and you know, at the bottom end of it is a clear recognition that we need to make choices of what we associate with, what we focus and what we spend our money on. And research and development was top most because we needed to grow, diversify our economy, and the best tool we had was our minds. The best tool we had was our mindset. The best tool we had were the alliances that we had developed over time. So we're going to reach out, but you know, you don't do that without having skin in the game. So I have recently pronounced as an investment in this ideal of a reset and reclaim that we would notch up our investment in R and D so that it matches those of developed countries at 3% of GDP in the shortest possible time, and that's why we brokered this partnership. Yeah, MIT, and

Dina Sherif: 16:27

let's talk about that partnership. You know, a lot of nations around the world in what I call global growth markets, or what many in the past have called emerging markets or developing markets or the global South, all terms that I reject, because we are the fastest growing nations in the world right now with massive potential, and the consumers are all in our part of the world. But a lot of countries are talking about how they can rapidly transition to a knowledge based economy to support the growth and evolution of innovation and technology for the purposes of economic prosperity, which is what unique said just right now, but you're really walking the talk in the strategic partnership with the Center for development and entrepreneurship at MIT, of which I'm the executive director. And I say this because it's very rare. I think, you know, I shared this before, but it was quite a shock to hear that a government is signing an agreement with MIT to really work with them and their country, not just their country, but the rest of Africa, the region they exist in, to support this transition to a knowledge based economy. And in April this year, Your Excellency came with a number of people, from your cabinet to MIT, you delivered a keynote address at our annual conference, and during that event, you shared the importance of nurturing vibrant ecosystems to support innovation across the country, to support the rapidly growing number of entrepreneurs that are evolving across the continent. And you talked about the need for science and technology to be the next frontier backing economic growth in across the African continent. So specifically, I remember you spoke about not just bringing the world to see Africa and the potential that is Africa, but also about the significant importance of exporting innovation from Africa to the rest of the world, which is really our history pre colonial times. You know, pre colonial times, Africa was one of the most innovative places in the world, my country, Egypt included. So the question I have for you is, in this moment, in 2024 where the world is today, which is a very difficult place, why is this all crucial for you? And what role do you want Botswana to play in this shifting of narrative to science technology and innovation being connected to the story of Africa?

H.E President Masisi: 19:13

You know, thanks for the question. In Botswana, we have a history relative to Africa, the sub region and the continent Botswana, has a history relative to the rest of the world. As we alluded to earlier on, it's almost just over 50 years ago that we gained our independence as one of the, you know, poorest nations on Mother Earth, and we have risen to become an upper middle income country. We are the most stable in Africa. We're multi party democracy, the oldest, most mature. We intend to keep that record with these credentials and now with the realization as I lead. My government and country, and as a committed pan Africanist, what's good for the goose is good for the ganda, if this is good for my country, and I have every empirical evidence to demonstrate that I want to invite not just the sub region from which I come, I want to invite extol the rest of Africa to join in on this. And I'm prepared. I'm prepared. My government's prepared to locate it in Botswana. My government's prepared to co fund. My government is prepared to open up using the very transparency, integrity we're known for, to allow others to invest in this ideal. The ideal is based on the logic that's there for everyone to see. Africa is the youngest continent in the world. Africa is a continent that has the greatest opportunity of prosperity Africa, not only is it young and has, has the greatest potential prosperity. Africa is endowed with a diversity of resources, water, the land, you know, the mineral wealth, a clean air forest, you know, and you name it, natural gas. Natural Gas, you name it, you know, Africa has a market, single market, as espoused through the FCTA, that's the biggest in the world, 1.3 billion and growing fastest, youngest, therefore the potential for the being open to being traded with longest presents itself.

Dina Sherif: 21:52

Of course. You know, I read a data, a statistic recently, that over 40% of Africa's population is under the age of 15. Only 3% of Africa's population is over the age of 65 that means that in 10 years, they will all be consumers, they will enter the workforce, and that will open up massive opportunities for investment. But in 25 years, in fact, one in four people in the world will be African. 25% of the global population will be African. So which is why I think, for me, this idea of reclaim and reset really matters right. Matters not just to Botswana, but to all of our countries, because this is the moment it is right now, that moment. So I think you know, following your visit, when your excellency came to MIT, we signed an MOU and we're about to sign an agreement that will launch this multi year journey together between our center at MIT, the government of Botswana and the rest of Africa, and MIT will bring the best that we have to offer in terms of building strong and connected innovation ecosystems to Botswana and beyond Botswana, but at the end of this five year partnership, and you know, I'm Pretty sure that it will continue beyond those five years. What will success look like for Botswana, and what, what spillover do you hope will happen in Africa as a result of this particular partnership with MIT in this agreement?

H.E President Masisi: 23:38

Well, listen to this. I'm listening. We're launching, we're launching this $1 billion fund. Yeah, right, yes. And bots government is putting money to it. Yes. Botswana government is inviting global interested players, people who think deep, long and far, in the private sector, the public sector, philanthropists, you name it, African bank, we want to also get the international the World Intellectual Property Organization, involved, because all these, when put together, will create An ecosystem that will serve all Nation States of Africa in the transformation of their countries using deep research, deep tech innovation and the tools, the resources, The human capital as attracted through our partnership with MIT, will be there for the exploitation. I cannot imagine a more radical way, a more opportune way, to transition your value proposition as a country. Your company, success will look like the world turned upside down with respect to how Africa has been trading with the world right now, and what will begin to converse with the world as it gravitates around the center. Success will also involve enhanced discoveries, whether in the you know, pharmaceutical space, if you imagine the forest reserves in Africa and the natural products that occur, and what research and deep tech can generate out of those is not just for Botswana. Botswana just provides the ecosystem, the stability, the grounding through this agreement to springboard, yeah, and take it to your country, whether it's in West Africa, Central Africa, East Africa, you name it. This is the future. What I also see as success is when the academic institutions of Africa, some of the oldest being in Egypt, your own country, come and enroll in this ecosystem and CO invest. The CO investment need not necessarily be in financial terms only. It could be in human capital. It could be your laboratories. It could be the partnerships with finance, institutions, your own country. This is groundbreaking work, and I see this partnership going way beyond five years. I see this as a partnership that's going to work for the world too. It's symbiotic. MIT is going to grow, not just in reputation, but it's in critical capacity to generate earth shattering research findings and partnerships like never been done before.

Dina Sherif: 26:53

So I want to pause because I think this. I want the audience to understand the significance of what you would like to launch, and this idea of launching a billion dollar fund or an initiative to support the transition of Africa to knowledge based economies that are fueled by innovation, and a rapid expansion of innovation driven enterprises and also deep tech ventures. And deep tech ventures is really the commercialization of R and D, which means that Africa will become a place that is originating and creating new innovation and taking it to the rest of the world. Now the creation of this independent billion dollar fund out of Botswana, the idea is to really use a blended financing model to bring in big foundations, philanthropists, high net worth individuals who have a stake in the game, a stake in Africa, to co fund this endeavor with the government of Botswana, but to also invite other governments in Africa to put money into this fund with a vision of really connecting the different innovation ecosystems across Africa, and to really work to create shared r&d, to create have faculty say in Cairo work with faculty in Botswana and Nigeria and Ghana, and really see a force emerge out of Africa for this to be also become, not just the youngest continent in the world, but also to be one of the most exciting places in terms of giving birth to new innovation in challenges that really impact us, climate, agriculture, healthcare, education, all of this needs innovation, and we have the capacity to solve our own problems, but we need to also create an independent body that will continue to fund these endeavors, and maybe I know that Botswana has the capacity to put extra money into R and D and to support this, but not every African country has that same privilege. And your vision of launching this particular fund is really to even out the playing field so that we can all work together. So what is really for you, for those who may be listening in who work for foundations or the UN or the World Bank or the African Development Bank, or the afri ex im bank, or really successful entrepreneurs who really want to see the next generation of entrepreneurs thrive on the continent. What is your call for action really? What is this movement that you really want to invite people to join. Well,

H.E President Masisi: 29:44

you know, my call for action is for people to realize a the the opportunity that can be garnered out of this, and part of it in simple language, is that. Could be able to come up with an idea, you can have the ecosystem by which it's funded, by which it is protected and by which it's evacuated through industry, if it's so meant that by which it could be negotiated to be taken to market and the financing protected for that. The idea is for if you're in a country that is financially not able to invest in this fund, you are a creative individual, an innovative individual, for you to know there is a place for you to excel and succeed. If you're a company or a high net worth individual or an institution that has the resources to invest for return like you've never imagined, and the regulatory environment is crystal clear, as Botswana always has been, there's a home for you, if there's a place for you to find out if you know you could learn how to there's a place for you. If there's a place for you that you've been looking for that is cost effective to interact with some of the best deep tech experts globally, it's in Botswana, because MIT will bring them to Botswana, and by virtue of the domiciliary of this agreement, the pricing is competitive. We are wanting to share this opportunity and not keep it to ourselves as Botswana. We are wanting to be the brethren of our neighbors, because prosperity for our neighbor, prosperity for other Africans, addresses issues of migration. They address issues of peace and security. They address issues of a healthy lifestyles. They address issues even of food security, because the research that will go into this, the peace dividend that will derive out of more people living better, and therefore rejecting war as a means to try and resolving a problem or and even rejecting the incentivization of conflict in order to get to minerals, should motivate those like minded to see this as a Peace investment. I

Dina Sherif: 32:44

agree, and I

H.E President Masisi: 32:45

the UN and all those organizations that are committed to development or to logically embrace this, support it and put their money where their mouths are.

Dina Sherif: 33:00

Yes, because I think one of the most ignored pathways to peace is economic prosperity, yes and economic prosperity will reduce conflict, will create peace, will improve livelihoods, and that that is a core focus of why you want to launch this fund. You

H.E President Masisi: 33:20

know, before you get onto the next one, I'd want people to be tested. Just do your maths. Just do your analysis. This investing in this fund is the cheapest, fastest way to reach realized. SDGs,

Dina Sherif: 33:36

I agree. I'm with you there. I'm with you there. There's no better way than to build up prosperity than bottom up, through entrepreneurs, through innovation and through massive collaboration in terms of economic prosperity. And I think this fund could really unlock that for Africa and beyond.

H.E President Masisi: 33:57

I'm excited.

Dina Sherif: 33:57

I'm excited right there with you, as you know, I'm on your bus. So I want to ask you, you know, continuing on with this, you know, I'm African. You're African. And when you're here, and we're here doing this podcast in the United States of America, and when people talk about the narrative of Africa, it's often framed with this lens of poverty, conflict, bad, politics, corruption, exploitation, extraction, all these terms that really conjure up a negative image and that also gets internalized within our own people. But we Your Excellency, and I for sure know that this is not true, and Africa is a place of hope, of growth, of dynamism, but of community, because we love each other, we are deeply bound. We love our communities. We love supporting each other. I say in Egypt, nobody dies of starvation because somebody will go out and find a way to give that person food or or what they need. And that comes from the communal part of our heritage. Now, you know our our collective narrative of Africa has always been one of growth and abundance and hope and creativity. And earlier on, you spoke about the incredible story of Botswana and how it transitioned. But I also would like you to tell me how you would like to define, or maybe I should say, redefine the narrative of Africa, for the global community and those listening, what do we need to overcome as a continent, or, more specifically, what do we need to let go of if we're to achieve this vision of being a continent that exports innovation, that is stable, that is economically sovereign and prosperous. What message would you like to share about that redefinition of our narrative?

H.E President Masisi: 36:11

Well, first, let me postulate that this negative, condescending narrative of Africa being essentially problematic, deficient in everything of value, is not only false and baseless, it is determined deliberately as a precursor to conquest. And I want to invite everybody who seeks peace to begin by rejecting that notion. Africa is proud. It's beautiful. It's got intelligent people, it's got wonderful resources, it's got capacity, and it is potentially much more prosperous, if not abused. You know, if you continually rape somebody, they get hurt so badly that they can't speak up for themselves. And in the narration of Africa, being as bad as supposed to be, that's the effect that it gets of it. So we need to reject that turn the leaf completely. And then we can stand up and compete. We, as African people, need to let go of that. And then we also need to, you know, speak up to those who are caricature in this and ask them to stop it, because it's not serving us, it's only serving them. You have to wonder, if we were so bad as described, why is everybody else running after us and the things that we own, if it really was so bad. So if you also think of the concepts used, they're very alien to us, like you say, we are Brother's Keeper. You know, there's a communitarian spirit. You look at the African languages, they're always idiomatic expressions or Proverbs, and describe and extol virtues of sharing, virtues of helping others, virtues of uplifting, virtues of growth. These are the concepts, the these. This is the language that we need to put back into our everyday narrative, and even the projection that we have of the media and the angling of our cameras and the content of what shared and described needs to project this. And so I am filled with the optimism that if we step up and forward sufficiently, this will come through and through and in stepping up, we need to be very clear about what we focus on. We are clear. We want innovation. We want to dig in deep, get the very best that we have and can generate, and share it with the world, and the world only owes us a fair price. That's right. That's all we aren't That's right.

Dina Sherif: 39:34

100% I'm right there with you. You know, yeah, it warms my heart right to hear you say this, because sometimes it gets lonely out there to constantly be carrying the flag of saying Africa is grand, and we've always been that way, but there was little blip in our history, and we need to really like you said. Turn that page and move forward, because there's only forward, and we we the past is the past, so we need to step forward with the same confidence and pride that you're speaking with, because there was a time where Africa was grand, and it still is, and will continue to be. And I think, you know, this is the beginning, and there's really no time to waste. We have so many jobs to create, so much to offer the world, and we're ready to do that. So I want to give you an opportunity, just very quickly, before we come to a close. Your Excellency, and I have spoken as well as I have spoken with members of your cabinet about you know, Botswana has the potential to be a true place for entrepreneurs to base themselves out of in the interim, as we continue to see countries across Africa really transition to more stable economies, Botswana is there, and we see so many amazing African entrepreneurs leave the continent and come to the United States or go to Dubai or go to Europe, and we want to retain that talent on the continent, and and Botswana has the potential to be a hub for these innovation driven entrepreneurs to base themselves out of in a place of stability as they continue to grow, but also as they start seeing the enormous potential of really focusing on the entirety of Africa as a market. I'd love for you to share with entrepreneurs across the continent who are listening this invitation to contemplate Botswana as a place for them to come and base themselves out of what is that invitation? What does Botswana have to offer?

H.E President Masisi: 42:04

You know, Botswana has a lot to offer besides the sunshine and the wildlife and the

Dina Sherif: 42:10

good beef and the great beef and the wonderful beef. That's right, diapers included,

H.E President Masisi: 42:14

we have a lot to offer in terms of our governance ecosystem. We are, you know, among the least corrupt countries in terms of perceptions in Africa. For the longest time, we have very attractive tax regime which is predictable and smooth in changes, gentle, easy to understand and well managed. We have no controls in our exchange of foreign currency. So you can bring in as much money in whatever currency you want and take it out, and you can take out as much money in whatever currency you want. We are unintimidated by that. We have a very predictable, clear policy environment for investment. We have the international financial service center, and among the quick fixes we're going to make of it is that we're going to boost it with localized banking capacity so that we're not dependent on external banks as we have been, and that's part of the attraction for this investment fund that we Want to put in place. We have a very stable government and governance system. Through our democratic processes. Every five years, we go for general election like we're going for general election in October, the 30th, October, we'll be casting a vote for both parliament and local government. It is where constituency based systems or present emerges out of the majority number of parliamentary seats the party that the presidential candidate belongs to. They become the executive head of the country for a maximum of five years at a time, and a total maximum for one person of 10 years. And then they are required to step down, and there's automatic succession, provided we have been doing this since we were independent, so we're pretty trained at it. We have an independent judiciary that's well respected. We respect the rule of law, and we pledge to uphold it each time, so we haven't scared anybody away. We can only attract much more. I think some of our innovators and entrepreneurs have evacuated out to the device or the US of the world, because of the attractiveness, the size of market. They will come back. But what they don't see, which I ask them to look. Through at carefully is the rate of return on investment is much higher in Sub Saharan Africa than anywhere else in the world, discounting any risk, and we are the biggest risk in Botswana. We also want them to see that the market, as you know, brokered by the African continental free trade area, the single biggest market in the world, 1.3 billion young growing, fastest working population, huge opportunities for investment. We look at the whole African landscape, infrastructure, energy, the demands are massive. Not only are they massive, they will be their longest and they just keep growing. When you add deep tech to the rich endowment of natural capital in all these countries, the potential for return is enormous, because you don't only evacuate to the African market. You can evacuate this to the world, because they don't have it. You look at the critical mineral space, you know, we have just licensed our first manganese mine in Botswana, critical, and we're going to be, you know, manufacturing, you know, 11. Electric batteries in an up so distant future, in Botswana, Africa has the highest concentration of the critical earth minerals that are required for clean energy. We have an abundance of sunshine for photovoltaic development, and when you add all these together, you really cannot go wrong. So I invite our entrepreneurs to think deep and hard, do your research. Come we're ready for you. Amazing,

Dina Sherif: 46:58

amazing. We will definitely be sharing that with the entrepreneurs who are part of our center too. So I want to, I want to close, you know, many, many years ago, a friend of mine asked me a question. She said, when you look back on your life, how do you want to be remembered? And at the time, I was in my late 20s, it was such a profound question. And I remember looking at her and saying, you know, when my time ends and people think of Dina, I want them to think that I led a life of purpose, of meaning, that somehow not that my life mattered, but that I did something that mattered to others. Now, when you look back on your life, and you know you're only going to be in this incredible position of a head of state for a short period of time, and in the big scheme of things, it's a very short period of time. What do you want your legacy of purpose to be for your country, for Africa, for the world. When people think of His Excellency, President mahotsein Assisi,

H.E President Masisi: 48:13

you know, I am only human, like we all are, and I happened to be very, really privileged to have occupied the position that I occupy, and with all the humility I can master in terms of the challenges that have presented themselves before me, and the seizing of those challenges using my best capacities. I'd like to be remembered for being the biggest disrupter for good. I want when people think back, Inshallah, as you say, to remember this one time when I had this very privilege, what a profound change in the way we thought and behaved, I cultivated and caricatured. The rest, really is the uptake? Yeah, I acknowledge you so much. Yeah.

Dina Sherif: 49:27

Well, I can say with confidence that you're already on that path. So your excellency, our time together has come to an end, but we really want to wish Botswana well in your upcoming election, we're excited to be on this journey with you and to really see let's want to transition to a full fledged knowledge economy and to start exporting not just diamonds, but real innovation to the rest of the world when it comes to agriculture. Healthcare, education, transportation, our challenges are endless, but that means the opportunities to solve are endless, and we're really grateful to you for taking the time to engage with us, to open your country to us, to share your vision and to really inspire others with this wonderful vision you have. And on behalf of us at the Center for development entrepreneurship at MIT, we look forward to working with your nation and being a part of this journey. And as an African, I'm 100% with you about reclaiming and resetting who we are and taking back our agency and moving forward one step at a time. So I thank you, and I'm so grateful for the time that you spent with us today. Well,

H.E President Masisi: 50:45

thank you very much. I must with all the humility again, Master. Thank you for wishing my nation state well at the upcoming general elections. As I did tell you, we have a term limit. I will be standing for the last time. I hope to win. If I don't, you can come to my home village. It's called moshopa. I will see you there.

Dina Sherif: 51:06

I will absolutely do that. Thank you so much. Thank you.