12 Jun 2025

The establishment of the Botswana Mercantile Exchange (BMEX) is a deliberate and emboldened step to navigate the hurdles facing organic diamonds. 

President Advocate Duma Boko said this when delivering a keynote address during the 2025 World Federation of Diamond Bourses (WFDB) Presidents’ meeting in New York, United States of America on Tuesday. The entity, according to President Boko, would serve as a regional hub for structured commodities, including finance and trade, as well as Botswana’s natural diamonds. 

“With secure vaulting facilities and traceability integrated into its digital infrastructure, BMEX will allow for the creation and trading of mineral-backed securities commodity, ETF and satisfied trade bonds,” he said, adding that the entity would be premised on the principles of the WFDB values of trust, transparency and integrity. 

He said that through the traceability system, resource authentication from extraction to market would carry certification information of origin, ethics as well as economic impact. He stated further that the Botswana Mercantile Exchange was also Pan-African in its ambition, as it would onboard countries such as Malawi and Zambia to harmonise the regional trade corridor. He, therefore, made a clarion call to the diamond industry players to consider doing business with Botswana due to its alignment with the many values they shared to create a win-win situation for all. 

Chief Executive Officer of De Beers Group, Mr Al Cook said to wage a winning war against synthetics, proponents of natural diamonds needed to tell their stories based on the principles of Truth, Ethics, Marketing, Provenance, and Tariffs. Mr Cook was of the view that tariffs on organic diamonds should be removed because the United States did not have any natural diamonds. 

“Let us work together to ensure that diamonds across the world are tax-free, duty-free in the way it benefits all our consumers,” he said. 

Meanwhile, Minister of Minerals and Energy, Ms Bogolo Kenewendo and her Angolan counterpart, Mr Diamantino Azevedo, Minister of Minerals Resources, Petroleum and Gas, said on the margins of the WFDB meeting that the two largest producers of natural diamonds by both quality and value, had resolved to collaborate regularly to give leadership and direction in the diamond industry. They said that the two countries would meet next week in Luanda, Angola to further discuss pressing issues, such as the marketing and promotion of natural diamonds to ensure the industry thrived. ENDS