Tan Sri Looks Back At Limkokwing Botswana With Sense Of Pride

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Founder and President of Limkokwing University of Creative Technology Worldwide Professor Emeritus Tan Sri Dato Sri Paduka Dr Lim Kok Wing, who is also Malaysian Prime Minister’s Special Envoy to SADC Nations has expressed his pleasure at the impact his university has had on Botswana since it setup in the country ten years ago.
Speaking at the graduation ceremony of the class of 2017 in Gaborone on Friday, the man who has been dubbed ‘the creative maestro’ said the Gaborone campus remains Limkokwing’s regional hub and has attracted students from more than 30 countries.
‘‘In May 2007 when we opened for enrolment, 6 000 young Batswana showed up for the 1000 places we had.  5 years later, we had some 10 000 students on our campus. Today, 10 years later, we have graduated some 14 000-young people who are today the most accomplished in their chosen fields, not only in this country, but anywhere in Africa. This campus remains at the forefront in applied creativity and digital technology,’’ Tan Sri told graduates and parents who had gathered at the university’s Hall of Fame at the block seven campus.
He said the model upon which the Botswana campus was built was replicated in Lesotho, Swaziland and Sierra Leone.  ‘‘The management of all of these campuses is led by Batswana from this campus,’’ he said. Tan Sri said over the past 10 years, the university has done much in human resource transformation and in the next 10 years, the university shall hasten up the speed of societal transformation and economic innovation. He urged the graduates to go out and play a defining role in the change that is taking place throughout Africa. Tan Sri is one Asia’s most well-known communications strategists who set up his first business empire – Wings Creativity Consultants, in 1975 when he was only 29 years of age.
Speaking at the graduation, Vice President Mokgweetsi Masisi said it was without a doubt that Limkokwing University is transforming the national tertiary education landscape by nurturing talent through creativity and design focused thinking.  He said since the university established a campus in Gaborone in 2007, it has not just brought the 21st century relevant programmes but it has also imbued the students with a unique fusion of African, Asian and European education thus better enabling Botswana to retain its brightest young people. ‘‘In partnering with Limkokwing University, the government was impressed with its unique and refreshingly different approach to tertiary education,’’ the vice president said.