01 Mar 2026

The Bank of Botswana Governor, Mr Lesego Moseki, has highlighted the country's challenging employment outlook, citing structural rigidities, weak labour absorptive capacity, and low productivity growth as major concerns. ‎Currently, he said, unemployment stood at 27.6 per cent saying it illustrated the scale of the challenge the budget and economic transformation initiatives sought to address. ‎ ‎Speaking during the presentation of the Monetary Policy statement recently, Mr Moseki emphasised the need to address these constraints, accelerate economic diversification, and enable job creation. "There is an urgent need to address structural constraints, accelerate economic diversification, and, generally, enable job creation," he said. ‎ ‎According toMr Moseki, Botswana's real GDP grew by 0.1% in the 12 months to September 2025, marking a modest recovery from the 1.7% contraction in the corresponding period of 2024. Non-mining GDP grew by 2.6% in the same period, supported by growth in non-mining activities. ‎ ‎However, Moseki noted that the mining sector contracted by 10.7% in the year to September 2025, with diamond mining declining by 11.4%. He emphasised the need to improve implementation of economic transformation initiatives to achieve desired impact. ‎ ‎The Governor's comments underscore the need for Botswana to accelerate traction of transformation initiatives outlined in NDP 12 and the Botswana Economic Transformation Programme (BETP) to ensure long-term financial stability and macroeconomic policy effectiveness.ENDS