04 Jul 2019

Botswana is looking at further cementing ties with countries in the Great Lakes region, says Botswana High Commission to Kenya and Rwanda deputy head of mission Ms Ntesang Molemele. 

“We are accredited to six countries namely Rwanda, Burundi, Sudan, South Sudan, Kenya and Uganda. We thus have a broad scope and our responsibility is to promote relations between people to people interactions, business to business and trade,” she said. 

Speaking in an interview ahead of July 4 Liberation Day celebrations in Kigali, Ms Molemele said part of the mission’s core mandate was to establish and promote a healthy working environment in any field between Botswana and the region. 

Ms Molemele stated that there was currently a lot of work going on between Botswana and Kenya as evidenced by the recent high-level visits. 

“President Uhuru Kenyatta visited Botswana in 2016 with the Kenyan business community. We already have Letshego and Choppies operating in Kenya. We also have some Kenyan individual businesses venturing into our country,” she said. 

She noted that Kenya had been helpful to Botswana in the sphere of human resource development. 

“We have had a lot of medical doctors, teachers, human resources practitioners that have come to our aid in the hour of need,” she said. 

Ms Molemele said the recent state visit by President Paul Kagame to Botswana was an indication of fruitful ties. 

Botswana and Rwanda, she said, were still harnessing opportunities and there were already businesses in Botswana which had indicated their desire to open shop in Rwanda. 

“With Kenya, we have the Joint Permanent Commission on Cooperation (JPCC) with several memoranda of understanding signed and both governments still to explore more opportunities,” she said. 

She noted that President Dr Mokgweetsi Masisi indicated during Mr Kagame’s recent state visit to Botswana that there was need to cement the relationship through the establishment of instruments such as the JPCC.

Only a    week after Mr Kagame’s visit, Dr Masisi was in Kigali at the invitation of his counterpart to join in the festivities commemorating the silver jubilee of the end of the Rwanda genocide. Ends