The newly sworn in presidentof Botswana, Mokgweetsi Masisi has also sworn in his 18-member cabinet last Wednesday and making the list is the country’s youngest member of parliament Bogolo Joy Kenewendo.
The 30-year-old economist, media commentator and policy analyst first joined parliament in 2016 as a specially elected MP by former president Ian Khama, and she is now the Investment, Trade and Industry Minister.
Her appointment as a minister makes her the country’s youngest minister and one of few women to ever gain political leadership in the landlocked Southern African country.
This feat has generated a lot of reaction from many young Africans on social media who were not only admiring her good looks, but rethinking the choice of older political leaders in their countries.
One Twitter user EnviroMan from South Africa compared Bogolo to the women in his country’s cabinet who he described as Gogos – which means Grandmothers in the Xhosa language. “Get to SA and have a look at Gogos in the cabinet,” he tweeted under a post.
According to botswanayouth.com, alot of people did not see this one coming, Bogolo is currently making news around town as the youngest member of parliament ever in this country.
Bogolo has done a lot for Botswana in the past, but now her outstanding achievements are getting the recognition now that she has joined the big guns in parliament. The following facts about her will help you get to know her better.
The beautiful Bogolo Joy Kenewendo was born 29 years ago and she is from Motopi village in the Boteti area.
She holds an MSc in International Economics from the University of Sussex (UK), a BA in Economics from the University of Botswana and she is a certified Project Management PRINCE 2 practitioner.
Through her hard work Bogolo earned herself a 2012 Chevening Scholar to do her MSc in International Economics at University of Sussex.
She was one of two Botswana youth delegates to the 64th Session of the United Nations General Assembly. As part of this responsibility, she was nominated to present a statement of African youth to the Secretary General of the United Nations,
Her areas of expertise include: Macroeconomic policy, public debt management, trade policy, export development, trade in services, regulatory frameworks, trade related issues, trade and investment policy, industrial development policy, institutional frameworks for policy formulation, poverty alleviation, financial sector development, etc.
Not the one to be outshone Ms. Kenewendo was honored with the Ten Outstanding Young Persons (TOYP) award by JCI Botswana in 2012.
Following her encounter with the US first lady Michelle Obama during her Yali experience pre-Mandela Washington fellowship in 2011, she and a friend formed the Molaya Kgosi Women Empowerment.
She has been based in Ghana because she had a chance to study in the United Kingdom and got her masters. She has been working as a trade economist in the ministry of trade and industry in Ghana and was previously employed as an economic consultant at Econsult Botswana.
A jack of all trades and a master of them all, Kenewendo is also a seasoned presenter and regularly provides analysis for local and international press.
10. She has now made another history by becoming the youngest representative in parliament after being specially elected by His Excellency the President.
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