Wada Kealotswe, an eco-friendly pencil manufacturer from Botswana creating jobs and positively impacting the planet — Lionesses of Africa

What inspired you to start your company?

I was inspired by the love of recycling paper. I was in the 2019 Cohort for a Youth Summit with the World Bank and pitched a paper recycling project that ended up reaching the semifinals. I was motivated to further explore the idea of recycling and ended up finding a niche with recycling newspapers. I also love nature and the thought of knowing that some trees are cut down for the manufacture of wood pencils motivated me to recycle.

Why should anyone use your service or product?

What makes our product special is that it is made from recycled newspapers which could be going to the landfill increasing gases that are not environmentally friendly. Furthermore, the product is 80% handmade which allows us to hire more people and create employment.

Tell us a little about your team

I have a team of 3 who are employed on a permanent basis and who all work in our workshop. The team is talented and has gained experience in the art of perfecting the pencil production. We have also trained 15 young people who are engaged when the work load is beyond our capacity.

Share a little about your entrepreneurial journey. And do you come from an entrepreneurial background?

My entrepreneurial journey started when I was a teenager, I grew up with my grandmother who was an entrepreneur and I guess that rubbed off on me. I wanted to do business and I would sell things to my fellow school mates. After high school when I was about 19, I registered my first company but it was short lived as I had to leave the country to further my studies. During my studies I continued selling cosmetics to my colleagues at the university. After graduating I returned home and tried a few franchises that were not in my country –  it failed. I then tried a magazine with a friend but that also failed due to funding. My last attempt before the current business was a paper bag manufacturing company with a friend. This one did not fail because of finances but instead because of a law that was to discontinue single plastic use which was reversed. So I lost clients of paper bags to plastics. I just shifted the company to the current business.