07 Nov 2022

HB Antwerp is will soon open its doors  at the Diamond Park in  Gaborone in December while operations are anticipated for January 2023.

Managing Partner and founder Mr Rafael Papismedov said in an interview that currently, the renovation of the facility at Diamond Park which is over 1300 square meters was about to be completed.

“The facility will house laser cutting, scanning, plotting, and robotics as well as an academy for diamond polishers. We will teach about 18 polishers at a time in order to reach capacity,” stated Mr Papismedov.

He said setting up the branch was part of the pledge made to government that once the ecosystem was established and fully operational in Belgium, they would bring the same knowledge-based transformation to Botswana.

HB Antwerp is a technology company focused on diamonds based in Antwerp.

The co-founders have extensive experience in the diamond industry and are determined to reconceive the way diamonds are sourced, manufactured and traded.

HB Antwerp is using technology to broaden the concept of transparency with a focus on end-to-end supply chain management, designed to simplify the complexities and challenges of the global diamond supply chain.

Regarding the advanced technology used by the company, Mr Papismedov said they were expecting the equipment to arrive in Botswana by December in order to start operations.

He further stated that the company was looking at more than 500 jobs created by 2025 while the company would start with185 employees when operations start in 2023.

“The more than 500 jobs created is for the highly educated workforce, while the cheap labour will be limited,” Mr Papisdemov said.

Co-founder Mr Shai de Toledo explained that the more than 500 jobs were related to the transformation of diamonds, in particular the digital infrastructure.

“We are building a digital infrastructure that will require many more software and code developers and we need to integrate those in our facility,” said Mr de Toledo.

He said these were the core jobs that had a direct influence on diamonds.

Therefore, he indicated that they would have thousands more jobs unrelated to transformation of the diamonds but supporting the marketing, branding and collection of diamonds.

“These are the type of ripple effects from the butterfly jobs such as fashion and art,” Mr de Toledo said.

In August, 30 youths made it for the HB Antwerp training in Belgium and the first 15 graduated.

Mr Papisdemov noted that the graduates will form part of the jobs created.

“They are the pioneers, the seed of our operation and we feel they have the highest chance to be developed into management positions,” said Mr Papisdemov adding that in January the other 15 will be going to Belgium for further training. ENDS