Itumeleng Garebatshabe is the founder of BWMADE  (Botswana Mobile) and is passionate about the use of technology to improve lives and enable efficiencies. He was one of the first people to publish mobile apps in Botswana.

BWMADE focuses on digitising and selling creative industry products in Botswana. The project was inspired by the challenges in finding digital creative works in Botswana, and to address Itumeleng took it upon himself to provide a solution to the challenge and started digitising creative works. Today BWMADE is the go-to-place for all Botswana-made products or works from different areas of the creative industry, including music, books, crafts, films and fashion. 

The passion he has for technology called him to this line of work and made him realise that he can solve some of the problems in the country through the use of tech-innovations. 


He has inspired a host of computer science graduates to create more content for the country. His work has resulted in his being selected to be part of the panel to draft Botswana’s National Development Plan, focusing on knowledge. He has also been selected as part of the BlackBerry Elite Developers in Africa and has contributed immensely to their ecosystems. 

In the next five years he envisions educating the people of Botswana about the importance of technology and how technology can be used to drive efficiencies; to ensure that Botswana plays a significant role in the knowledge-based economy by 2036.


Itumeleng is of the view that young people need to be given a lot of support, because they hold the keys to Africa’s success and play a vital role in creating solutions for Africa’s challenges. He says, it is the responsibility of young people in the region to begin to create more authentic content and document more of Africa’s heritage, as well as making life easier for our countrymen by educating them about the importance and the use of technology.

He has teamed up with local universities to empower graduates with practical knowledge and industry insights. With the help of SADC, he would like to expand to other African universities as well. 

Itumeleng says, the youth are the generation that will bring prosperity to Africa, and they must begin to collaborate to provide the solutions that Africa needs to address current challenges.