25 Nov 2013

Bank of Botswana governor and permanent secretary in the Ministry of Finance and Development Planning are upbeat that Botswana will certainly reap huge benefits from its diamonds now that downstream activities are undertaken locally.

Both governor Linah Mohohlo and PS Solomon Sekwakwa were part of the government negotiating team that successfully managed to convince De Beers to move its diamond sales wing from London to Gaborone. While the revenue sharing formula remains the same, Botswana will reap benefits from associated services, skills and technology as it moves towards a globally competitive diamond hub.
Mr Sekwakwa said the intention was to get more specialised firms, among them jewellery manufacturing companies.

The Permanent Secretary also said in future, Botswana would be able to export skills as more Batswana became masters in diamond cutting and polishing. He said together with Botswana Chamber of Commerce, Industry and Manpower (BOCCIM) they have been able to encourage local entrepreneurs to take advantage of the spin offs and also improve their services. Mr Sekwakwa said hotels have been urged for example, to introduce wi-fi connectivity to enable sightholders to communicate with their offices.

The public transport system, he said, needed a complete overhaul since there was a need for taxi operators to improve their services.

“This is one of the best things to happen and sets the tone for other sectors such as coal,” he said. He said beneficiation would result with improvement in revenue due to taxes and employment creation. For her part, governor Mohohlo said beneficiation was more of a commercial than social responsibility given the number of diamond cutting and polishing companies in the country and the number of employees they have.

She said originally there were 16 sightholders in the country and today there were 21, meaning there were profits to be reaped. The governor said the beneficiation process supported government’s poverty eradication initiatives given employment creation and increase in tax revenue. ENDS