04 May 2026

One of Africa’s most recognisable political figures, Rwanda President Paul Kagame, is expected to arrive at  the Sir Seretse Khama International Airport tomorrow for a two-day state visit to Botswana.

A press release from Government Communications reveals that president Kagame will be in the country at the invitation of his counterpart, President Advocate Duma Boko, and his sojourn will seek to build on the progress made since Mr Kagame’s previous state visit to Botswana in 2019.

Key milestones in bilateral relations include the establishment of the Joint Permanent Commission on Cooperation (JPCC) in 2022, which deepened bilateral engagement.

According to the release, the two heads of state will hold official talks focused on digital trade, tourism, animal vaccines, transport connectivity, and cooperation in the diamond value chain.

Preceding the state visit, senior government officials convened on Monday for a meeting of the JPCC, followed by a ministerial session of the JPCC scheduled for today.

Government Communications further reveals that a number of agreements are due to be signed during the visit, among them cooperation on trade and investment, institutional collaboration between Botswana Investment and Trade Centre (BITC) and the Rwanda Development Board (RDB) as well as Double Taxation Avoidance Agreement to facilitate business and investment flows.

Meanwhile, BITC will host the Botswana-Rwanda Business Forum, which features stakeholder presentations on Botswana’s investment climate and opportunities as well as interactive networking engagements from the two countries’ public and private sectors. According to information from BITC, the forum will focus on manufacturing, agribusiness, digital transformation, tourism and international financial services.

The two countries have attracted international attention as success story models on the African continent.

Botswana is Africa’s oldest, continuous multiparty democracy, which has had an upward developmental trajectory from one of the world’s poorest, least developed nations at independence in 1966 to being an upper middle income economy, with positive governance indices- high sovereign credit rating, human development index (HDI) and low corruption perception index.

Rwanda on the other hand is projected as a model post-conflict society, emerging from the Rwandan Genocide to record one of the continent’s economic growth rates, averaging 8 per cent growth in the post-2000 period, with significant infrastructure development, improved health outcomes and notable success in gender parity.

Former President Dr Mokgweetsi Masisi attended Mr Kagame’s inauguration ceremony in Kigali in August 2024.

At the time, Botswana had 16 citizens residing in Rwanda, including those engaged in post-graduate studies, business and gainful employment, including former Botswana Stock Exchange (BSE) head Mr Thapelo Tsheole, who at the time served as the Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of Rwanda Capital Markets Authority. ENDS