Bogolo Kenewendo has been appointed as Minister of Investment, Trade and Industry by new Botswana president Mokgweetsi Masisi

A former University of Sussex economics student has become Botswana’s youngest-ever government minister.

Bogolo Kenewendo has been appointed as Minister of Investment, Trade and Industry by new Botswana president Mokgweetsi Masisi.

At 31, she is the youngest-ever person to hold a ministerial post in the southern African country and one of five women in the new cabinet.  Her ministerial appointment comes just two years after being nominated as a Member of Parliament by the previous President of Botswana, Ian Khama.   

Bogolo arrived at the University of Sussex in the academic year 2012/13 on a Chevening Scholarship, graduating with an MSc in International Economics.  She subsequently worked as a trade economist in the Ministry of Trade and Investment in Ghana and last visited the University of Sussex in 2016 as part of the Foreign and Commonwealth Office’s International Leadership Programme.

She is remembered in the Department of Economics as a focused, hard-working and personable individual, and faculty who knew her expressed no surprise at her career success. 

Dr Ingo Borchert, a Senior Lecturer in Economics who taught Bogolo international economics on the MSc, recalls: “She was very likeable, self-confident, and keen to learn; she was a pleasure to teach.”

The Head of the Department of Economics, Professor Barry Reilly, extended his congratulations to Bogolo on her significant personal achievement and, on behalf of the Department, wished her the best of luck in her new ministerial post. He said: “Our MSc courses in Economics have an established record of producing excellent graduates who make an important contribution on return to their home countries.

“I am delighted to see Bogolo has followed in this fine tradition.”