27 Nov 2022

Through its Reset Agenda and the national transitional plan which will inform NDP 12, Botswana is on the right track for the realisation of Africa’s industrialisation plans, President Dr Mokgweetsi Masisi has said.

“We are on a course to industrialise Botswana as our contribution to the industrialisation of Africa,” he told journalists post the African Union’s 17th extraordinary summit on industrialisation and economic diversification.

 The President said the summit, held in Niamey, Niger recently,  was part of Africa’s industrialisation plans to which Botswana was committed.

Projects such as Kazungula Bridge, upgrading  of  road network,  particularly roads leading to borders and development of one-stop border posts,  he explained, were all aimed at connecting people in Africa and integrating SADC.

“The projects, though insufficient because of limited resources, are part of the preparatory works necessary towards attaining the AU Agenda 2063,” he said.

President Masisi said Africa’s industrialisation and economic diversification agenda would require funding to take off the ground and called for international development financiers to be roped in.

He said Africa was also looking at capacitating its own financial institutions such as Afreximbank as well as the African Development Bank by doing more business with them.

Part of concerted efforts to drive the industrialisation agenda, he said, was the adoption of a resolution to appoint Niger’s President Mohammed Bazoum  the agenda’s champion.

The President noted that attainment of the Africa Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA) was also dependent on industrialisation and infrastructure development.

Dr Masisi said Botswana was among the few countries yet to ratify the AfCFTA treaty.

“We are left with a few points of negotiation with respect to the tariffs of the AfCFTA and we have committed to have ratified by February 2023 ahead of the AfCFTA summit scheduled for Addis Ababa, Ethiopia,” he said.

On the possibility of well-established economies bullying smaller ones under AfCFTA, Dr Masisi said the agreement was a well-founded institutional framework with controlling mechanisms, rules and tariffs.

“Since all countries have a single objective of growing Africa, member states can not devise a system that will allow for the elimination of others,” he said.

About climate change in relation to industrialisation, the President pointed out that Africa contributed only three per cent or less to global toxic emissions and yet received an overwhelming  burden caused by industrialised countries. ENDS