09 Mar 2026

Vice President and Minister of Finance, Mr Ndaba Gaolathe, has ruled out expanding the Government Employees Motor Vehicle and Residential Property Advance Scheme (GEMVAS) to include multi-residential properties, citing significant fiscal risks and a record P1.9 billion in government exposure. 

Answering questions in Parliament, Minister Gaolathe revealed that as of September 2025, government’s total contingent liability under GEMVAS stood at approximately one per cent of Botswana’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP). 

“An exposure of this magnitude is material in the context of fiscal consolidation efforts and competing national development priorities,” the minister stated. 

He emphasised that such guarantees must be managed prudently to safeguard macroeconomic stability, noting that expanding the scheme would amplify fiscal exposure and convert private commercial risks into public obligations. 

Mr Gaolathe clarified that GEMVAS, established in 1988, was specifically designed to facilitate primary home ownership and personal mobility, not to serve as a vehicle for commercial real estate ventures. 

He argued that multi-residential developments were income-generating assets whose viability depended on market variables like rental demand and occupancy, adding “including them would significantly alter the risk profile of the scheme, moving it away from its original intent as a social facilitation instrument.” 

The minister explained that while employees repaid loans via payroll deductions, government provided a sovereign guarantee to banks, creating direct cost to taxpayers if an employee exited the public service through resignation or dismissal, retirement and abscondment. 

In such cases, he said government was obliged to pay up to 70 per cent of the outstanding balance, while the state attempted to recover the funds from terminal benefits via the Public Finance Management Act, any shortfall became a direct hit to the national budget. 

He further said the decision to keep GEMVAS restricted was also a matter of policy alignment. Mr Gaolathe noted that the Botswana Economic Transformation Plan sought to reposition government as an enabler rather than a financier of commercial activities. 

“Extending GEMVAS to commercial property investment would run counter to that reform trajectory and blur the distinction between public facilitation and private enterprise,” he said. 

He added that for public officers wishing to pursue commercial property investments, there were existing institutions better equipped to manage such risks including National Development Bank, Citizen Entrepreneurial Development Agency and commercial banks. 

Shoshong MP, Mr Moneedi Bagaisamang had wanted to know why government did not fund multi-residential projects through GEMVAS given the security of salary-linked repayments. BOPA