10 Nov 2025

The Assistant Minister for State President, Ms Maipelo Mophuting says the current domestic and global economic challenges calls for prudent financial management.

She was responding to the Parliamentary debates and tabling a motion for the approval of the draft National Development Plan 12 (NDP 12) in Parliament on Thursday. The draft NDP 12 was presented under the theme: Building a Diversified and Inclusive Deep Economy for Sustainable Jobs.

Ms Mophuting also underscored the need for stakeholders to collaborate efforts in order to transform the country’s economy.

“We continue to experience sluggish GDP growth, high unemployment and persistent poverty and inequality. Our fiscal landscape has also been constrained, with budget deficits projected to persist during the first half of the plan period. Given these realities, it is imperative that we exercise prudence while striving to fulfil our national aspirations,” she said.

Ms Mophuting noted that the private sector was a key player in the transformation agenda, which was expected to transform the economy of the country into an export-led as well as creating employment opportunities in various sectors.

She therefore said owing to the fiscal challenges, government was committed to facilitating the private sector toward an inclusive and sustainable economic growth. Ms Mophuting allayed fears that adopting a private sector-led economy approach was tantamount to fail the country and its people.

“The commitment by this government during NDP 12 is to open up the public sector for the benefit of the economy and to take a path of prioritising private sector-led economic growth. The government’s role will not be passive, but rather proactive, as its functions are crucial for the private sector to flourish responsibly,” she noted.

Consequently, Ms Mophuting said NDP 12, through the Botswana Economic Transformation Plan, was intending to strengthen the implementation of the five-year priorities across sectors, with robust delivery, monitoring and evaluations strategies anchored on accountability.

Ms Mophuting emphasised the need to harness Botswana’s natural resources such as Sengaparile, Mowana and Morula and their value chains to diversify the manufacturing sector.

She said the same would also be achieved by increasing citizen participation in clean energy from 10 per cent to 30 per cent and building beneficiation hubs in the mining sector.

“As a key driver for economic transformation, the infrastructure sector was earmarked for a facelift through upgrading infrastructure to enhance connectivity to the outside markets,” she said.

She further noted that the plan would focus on reforming policies within the transport sector, while also introducing toll gates to fund infrastructure maintenance.

Ms Mophuting noted that digitalising government systems would not contribute toward economic transformation and job creation only, but would also improve the efficiency in service delivery.

She said in order to create an inclusive economy, financial services would augment its processes with cashless transitions. “The move toward a cashless economy is intended to complement, not replace cash, ensuring inclusivity across all segments of the population,” she said. 

Ms Mophuting further noted that social protection programmes such as Ipelegeng and Old Age Pension would be reviewed to assess their effectiveness on the beneficiaries, as well as reduce loopholes for dependency. ENDS