Many people on social media praised the choice of then-30-year-old Bogolo Joy Kenewendo as Minister of Investment, Trade, and Industry, and many called for similar appointments in their own countries.
Kenewendo was chosen as Botswana’s youngest minister by President Mokgweetsi Masisi, who promised to invest more in young people and give them with job opportunities.
In 2018, New African magazine named Kenewendo one of the Top 100 Most Influential Africans.
Who is Bogolo Joy Kenewendo?
Bogolo Joy Kenewendo is a Motswana economist and politician born in the early 1980s. She was previously the Cabinet Minister for Investment, Trade, and Industry in Botswana. Kenewendo was dismissed from the cabinet in March 2020.
Since then, she has served as the Managing Director of Kenewendo Advisory in Gaborone, Botswana.
Career before Politics
After completing her postgraduate studies in the UK, Joy Kenewendo for short period was employed as a trade economist at Ghana’s Ministry of Trade and Industry. She also worked at Econsult Botswana, a Gaborone-based think tank, as an economic consultant.
Career in Politics
Kenewendo was nominated to the Botswana Parliament by then-President Ian Khama in 2016, and he was elected as a presidential nominee to parliament.
Mokgweetsi Masisi, the next incoming president, named Kenewendo as Minister of Investment, Trade, and Industry on April 4, 2018. The next day, she was sworn in.
When the United Kingdom assumed G7 leadership in 2021, Kenewendo was appointed to a newly constituted Gender Equality Advisory Council (GEAC) chaired by Sarah Sands by the country’s Minister for Women and Equalities, Liz Truss.
Bogolo Joy Kenewendo Education
She graduated from the University of Sussex (UK) with an MSc in International Economics, a BA in Economics from the University of Botswana, and has been one of two young representatives to the 64th session of the United Nations General Assembly.
