• Botswana’s Lasiwe Boago Robert, founder of Afras Technology, wins POESAM 2025 prizes.
• Startup develops tech solutions in education, agriculture, AI and digital infrastructure.
• Her AI platform Letlotlo la rona links unemployed graduates to paid work programs.

Botswanan entrepreneur Lasiwe Boago Robert, founder and CEO of Afras Technology, has received the Women’s Prize and third prize at the 2025 Orange Social Venture Prize Africa & Middle East (POESAM) in Botswana.

Founded in 2023, Afras Technology develops technology solutions for education, agriculture, digital infrastructure and artificial intelligence. The company said it is working to build a future where technology is created in Africa for Africa, aimed at empowering communities, businesses, and governments through scalable, data-driven innovation.

At the POESAM competition, Robert presented Letlotlo la rona, an AI-powered platform that connects unemployed graduates with public and private initiatives considered strategic by stakeholders. The platform offers paid professional experience and certification to participants.

Alongside her entrepreneurial work, Robert is a research assistant at the Botswana International University of Science & Technology (BIUST), where she earned a degree in pure and applied mathematics in 2022. She also holds a professional certificate in data analysis obtained in 2023 from online learning platform DataCamp.

Before founding Afras Technology, she taught mathematics as a private tutor. In 2023, she joined the Orange Summer Challenge, a three-month internship program run by the Orange Digital Center, and took part in the Digital Makers Challenge, another initiative of the center.