18 Feb 2018

Parliament has been informed that there are 31 Batswana companies involved in diamond sales and marketing, but their names cannot be disclosed as the information is confidential.

Minister of Tertiary Education, Research, Science and Technology, Dr Alfred Madigele said this in Parliament on February 14 on behalf of the Minister of Mineral Resources, Green Technology and Energy Security.

Dr Madigele said the shareholding ranges from 20 per cent to 100 per cent and that none of the companies operate offices or agencies in foreign countries.

Answering a question from the MP for Jwaneng/Mabutsane, Mr Shawn Ntlhaile, Minister Madigele stated that Batswana were exposed to the diamond business through business development seminars conducted by the ministry through the Diamond Hub.

“The ministry is also in the process of reviewing diamond beneficiation with a view to developing a diamond beneficiation strategy that would guide on creating an enabling environment for Batswana,” he added.

MP Ntlhaile had asked the minister if he was aware of the companies owned by indigenous Batswana involved in diamond sales and marketing.

He also wanted the minister to state the number and names of companies, the nature of shareholding in those companies; if such companies also operate offices in foreign countries and steps that were followed to open access for Batswana into this business.

Still in Parliament, the minister said government strategy around Debswana entailed leveraging Debswana to diversify away from upstream diamond industries to downstream diamond industries and industrialisation.

He said this in response to a question from MP Ntlhaile, who had asked what steps the Minister of Mineral Resources, Green Technology and Energy Security was taking taking to ensure that Debswana embraced diversification of its business portfolio away from diamonds and whether he would consider investing in coal liquid beneficiation.

Further, Dr Madigele explained that the strategy entailed using diamond revenues to diversify the economy through development of other sectors of the economy such as investment in other income-generating assets.

He said the ministry conducted studies on coal utilisation and markets, which fed into coal strategy in 2011/12.

Dr Madigele noted that one of the components under coal utilisation was the viability of coal to liquids.

The study recommended coal for exports and coal for power generation as the best option for utilising Botswana coal, he added.

However, he said in the recent years, the government through Botswana Oil Limited had been pursuing initiatives around coal to liquid (coal beneficiation).

Minister Madigele stated that the project was structured as a private sector-led initiative.

“The project is capital intensive (estimated to cost between US$4 billion and US$5 billion for a plant meeting Botswana’s petroleum products requirements) and the private sector has registered interest to develop it using own resources with government’s role limited to facilitator,” he said.

Furthermore, remaining cognisant of the budgetary constraints government was facing, the ministry was considering negotiating a stake in the project through an off take agreement. Ends