Management

Ms. Boitumelo "Tumi" Mbaakanyi is a Fellow Chartered Certified Accountant and a seasoned Private Sector Development Expert with over 20 years of experience spanning Project and Programme Management, Financial and Advisory Services, Transactional Advisory (including Due Diligence and Mergers & Acquisitions), Strategic Governance, and Organisational Turnarounds. She is widely recognised for her expertise in national and regional value chain development as well as trade development and facilitation.

As the Chief Executive Officer of Business Botswana, Tumi will provide strategic direction and leadership to the organisation, championing private-sector growth, policy advocacy, and national economic transformation. Her appointment marks a significant step in strengthening Business Botswana’s efforts to position the private sector as a key driver of sustainable economic development.

In her most recent role, she served as the Project Manager responsible for the Sustainable Private Sector Development pillar at the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) Botswana. In this capacity, she led the development and implementation of the organisation’s flagship Supplier Development Programme (SDP) and co-developed a Regional Value Chain Initiative, which is expected to commence shortly. Her portfolio spanned diverse value chains, including mining, manufacturing, infrastructure, and agro-processing, and included collaborative interventions aimed at improving the ease of doing business in Botswana.

Boitumelo has extensive governance experience, having served as a non-executive director and audit/risk committee member across a range of industries in the private sector, government, and civil society. Her leadership demonstrates deep agility in corporate governance, organisational sustainability, and strategic oversight. She currently chairs the Board of Directors of Old Mutual Life Insurance Botswana and serves as a Non-Executive Director at Old Mutual Financial Services Botswana and Riscura Botswana. She recently retired as Chairperson of G4S Botswana, a BSE-listed entity, after nearly a decade of board service.

Her previous governance roles include serving as President of the Women in Business Association, Botswana and as a member of the Independent Complaints Review Committee (ICRC) under the Public Procurement and Asset Disposal (PPAD) framework. She has also contributed to national and corporate negotiation teams for strategic agreements.

Beyond her professional achievements, Boitumelo treasures her role as a mother to her children, Maita (the King) and Fungo (the Princess), whom she nurtures with unwavering devotion and joy.

Kagiso Koyabe is a development and finance professional with over ten years of professional experience in the financial services sector and development. Often this included the assessment of not only individual companies, institutions and sectors, as well as analysing the conditions of businesses in Botswana across various sectors, to shape and influence the design of policies, strategies and intervention programmes for improved competitiveness. This has in recent times, been integral to developing new initiatives and programmes to further support the growth and competitiveness of the private sector and its support services.

As Coordinator of SMME Development under the EDF funded, Private Sector Development Programme (PSDP) Botswana, he assisted in designing and delivering specific programmed interventions to meet strategic challenges regarding day-to-day operations of small medium and micro enterprises and community-based organisations. This included coordinating technical consultants on projects in various parts of the country to ensure effective and impactful service delivery on projects, within budget and aligned to respective objectives. This opportunity also provided the opportunity to work alongside international experts from organisations such as the International Trade Centre – Geneva, International Labour Organisation - Pretoria (ILO), African Development Bank (AfDB) as well as regional non-for-profit organisation Phyto-Trade Africa, resulting in the publication of a series of 8 Value Chain studies and other business development tools.

As Technology Entrepreneurship Advisor for the Acceleration component of the Botswana Innovation Hub’s First Steps Venture Centre, Mr Koyabe continued to play the liaison role between the organisation and regional and international partners and collaborators who share the development objective of catalysing economic prosperity through mainstreaming innovation and innovative processes in businesses and programmes. This included support and coordination of the regional Southern African Innovation Collective (SAIC) Boost Up Regional Innovation Pitch Programme from 2020 through 2023. Other notable partnerships maintained during this time include; Venture Capital for Africa (VC4A) Mentor Driven Capital Start-up Mentorship programme, The UNDP Youth Connekt, ITC Ye! Youth entrepreneurship programme as well as supporting the operationalisation of the World Bank IBP Platform.

• Mr Koyabe holds a Bachelor of Commerce in Econometric & Economics from the University of Johannesburg