14 Feb 2022

Botswana is among the top five most attractive investment destinations in Africa, Rand Merchant Bank economist, Mr Daniel Kavishe has said.

According to Mr Kavishe,  Egypt is the continent’s top investment destination, followed by Morocco, South Africa and Rwanda.

Presenting ‘Where to Invest in Africa’ 2021 Report in Gaborone during Botswana Stock Exchange’s (BSE)  first opening bell ringing ceremony of the year recently, he attributed Botswana’s ranking to prudent governance, stable democracy, no exchange control regulations and a relatively competitive economy.

Mr Kavishe said the report also listed low incidences of corruption as one of the key factors that  contributed to the good ranking.

In addition, the inclusion of fiscal scores positioned the country as a great market place, he said.

Mr Kavishe said other pluses for Botswana was its foreign reserves which enabled it to weather the COVID-19 economic storm better than most and the country’s Economic Recovery and Transformation Plan which would contribute to its diversification and job creation efforts.

However, he said though Botswana had good and appropriate polices in place, the challenge was often lack of execution, slow implementation pace as well as delays in getting certain key projects finalised.

Warning that without new export earnings the country’s foreign reserves would decline, he said  Botswana needed to aggressively diversify exports such as by investing in agriculture sector value chains.

Mr Kavishe cited the Selebi Phikwe Citrus project as an outstanding investment development.

In her recent maiden budget speech, Minister of Finance and Economic Development, Ms Peggy Serame said agriculture was central to Botswana’s economic development efforts of employment creation, increasing incomes and building resilience.

BSE chief executive officer Mr Thapelo Tsheole said it was imperative to collectively create a conducive environment for companies to do business in Botswana.

Mr Tsheole said the benefits of such forms of investment included increased productivity, job creation, infrastructure development, innovation promotion, fostering skills transfer and introduction of advanced technology.

As the epicentre of Botswana’s capital markets, BSE’s role was to create a conducive environment to ease the process of raising capital and doing business, he said.

He revealed that the organisation’s efforts had resulted in the attraction of  a wide, diverse variety of investor base by promoting the listings’ value propositions to the local and international business community.

Mr Tsheole said pre-COVID-19, participation of investors in Botswana’s markets activity averaged between 40 and 50 per  cent but the pandemic brought challenges.

Botswana’s grey listing also slowed down investments leading to investor reduction and withdrawal, he said. Ends