07 May 2017

Specially elected Member of Parliament Ms Bogolo Kenewendo says Botswana needs to plan now for a Botswana beyond mining so as to have a future that involves other sectors contributing significantly to the country’s revenue pot.

Speaking at a discussion at the World Bank Group’s launch of the Botswana Mining Investment and Governance Review (MinGov) report recently, she said government was aware of the current situation of over reliance on mineral revenue hence the country has to come up with ways to drastically diversify its revenue portfolio.

“We need to find ways for mining revenue to trickle down to the rest of the citizenry and also increase the impact of mining revenues of areas where mines in Botswana are situated. Business linkages and cluster developments need to show evidence of rich mineral areas,” she said.

Ms Kenewendo said going forward, Botswana needed to share its wealth with its people and wealth creation at an individual level.

She said the report was expected to help government improve the sector’s performance to attract further investment.

“Mining is critically important for Botswana’s economic development and currently accounts for over 24 per cent of Botswana’s GDP and 89 per cent of its exports. Diamond resources were discovered in Botswana 50 years ago and are credited with rapidly transforming the country from severely impoverished to an upper middle-income success story. The MinGov findings support this remarkable economic development story,” she said.

Permanent Secretary in the Ministry of Mineral Resources, Green Technology and Energy Security Mr Kgomotso Abi said the country needs to continue strengthening performance and address issues of concern to investors.

“We need to build an environment that will stimulate more investment in mineral extraction,” he said.

For her part, World Bank Country Representative Ms Elene Imnadze said even though the mining sector immensely contributed to the development of Botswana there had been a decline in diamond sales which has led to companies like Debswana to cut back on production in 2016.

“Other mines, more especially the copper ones, have had to close down due to low commodity prices. The copper mines, including BCL which is under provisional liquidation, remain closed even though base metal prices are beginning to increase slightly,” she continued.

She noted that government has had to find ways of diversifying the economy and the capital generated from the mining sector should be invested into sectors that would be sustained beyond mining and this could be done by employing more people, building local suppliers and strengthening small and medium enterprises.

“It is against this background and mining challenges that a report, Botswana’s Mining Investment and Governance Review (MinGov) was compiled, MinGov was produced in order to help strengthen the mining sector’s governance, investment, environment and development impact in Botswana. It reviewed sector performance from the perspective of three main stakeholder groups-governments, investors in the mining value chain and civil society and identifies gaps between declared and actual government policy and practice,” said Ms Imnadze.

She further indicated that Zambia was the first country to launch the report followed by Botswana and moving forward, studies would be developed in the Democratic Republic of Congo, Mozambique, Peru, Ghana, and Kenya. Results will be published later this year.

Ms Imnadze said findings from the Botswana MinGov report indicated that Botswana was an attractive country for investment while mineral revenues were managed resourcefully and its mining policy and legal framework were intact.

“The environmental protection legislation is quite current and mostly based on good practice. While in regards to land use issues, including resettlements and compensation, the review indicates that the country requires a more inclusive process and stronger legislative work,” she said. ENDS