21 Feb 2023

Botswana is expected to achieve high income status by 2036, Minister of Finance, Ms Peggy Serame has said.

Minister Serame said this in response to questions in Parliament on Monday. She the target would require achieving an average annual Gross Domestic Product (GDP) growth rate of 5.7 per cent.

“This is expected to lead to the creation of sufficient employment opportunities to raise average incomes, reduce unemployment rate to single digits and significantly reduce poverty and inequality,” Ms Serame said.

The minister said government remained committed to address poverty in the country by strengthening the existing social protection programmes to make them more responsive, efficient and resilient.

She said that according to various household income and expenditure surveys carried out over the years, the headcount poverty rate, which was a financial measure of living standards, had been on a long term downward trend, reaching its lowest point of 16.3 per cent in 2015/2016.

The income gap between citizens, she said, was not narrowing as revealed by the latest available statistics.

“The 2015/16 Botswana Multi-Topic Household Survey revealed a Gini-Coefficient of 0.522 for that year. The Gini-Coefficient measures income inequality in a nation. Unfortunately Botswana remains one of the most unequal countries globally despite its upper middle income status,” she explained. 

On a related matter, she said a planned new household income and expenditure survey was delayed by COVID-19 and the postponement of the national housing census.

“It is now expected to be carried out in 2024/25 with the results available in 2026. 

The minister also told MPs that in response to the inequality and other socio-economic challenges that Batswana were faced with, government continued to strengthen policies and programmes across sectors aimed at expediting implementation of key strategic priorities to address such challenges.

For example, she said the Economic Inclusion Act and the new Public Procurement Act were expected to increase participation of citizens in the economy as well as encourage the use of locally produced materials to promote local economic activities and promote citizen participation in the procurement process.

Further, she said the passing of the Credit Information and Movable Property Acts would also improve access to credit to micro, small and medium enterprises which were mostly run by citizens.

“Other empowerment initiatives include establishment of a Wealth Creation programme which has consolidated some empowerment programmes such as micro enterprise projects in agriculture, housing, social protection and women empowerment,” she said.

She added that the programme also aimed at eradicating poverty as well as creating employment as well as improving and sustaining livelihoods. On one hand, she said Botswana’s poverty rate of 20.8 per cent recorded in the 2021 pilot national multi-dimensional poverty index report was considered relatively high despite the country having achieved upper middle income status. “Botswana’s average income was 78.6 per cent of the average for all upper middle income countries in 2021. 

This income level is an indication that Botswana as a whole was well on the way to being at par with other upper middle income countries,” she said.

She explained that the 2021 pilot national multi-dimensional poverty index used a variety of criteria related to living standards to measure poverty.

Member of Parliament for Molepolole North, Mr Oabile Regoeng had asked the minister to state the country’s population percentage which was at par with its upper middle income status.

Mr Regoeng also wanted to know the percentage of the population in poverty relative to the country’s upper middle income status.

He further wanted to know whether the gap between citizens as well as citizens and government was narrowing or widening as the country grew to become upper middle income.

The legislator also wanted to know if, considering all other variables, the minister was confident that by 2036 all or a significant portion of the citizenry would be at par with the country’s income status. ends