11 Aug 2026

The Africa Development Bank (ADB) 2026 Botswana Country Focus Report has identified areas central to the direction of government reforms among them, strengthening project preparations, deeper domestic capital markets, better public investment management and greater mobilisation of private capital.

Botswana is looking to the bank, to help deepen and accelerate the work particularly in project preparation in institutional capability, and in the mobilisation of capital around viable investments.

“Government and the Bank are in this sense breeding from the same school. Our institutions bring different instruments and expertise but, the development direction is the same. The value of such a partnership can be seen in what remains within the country,” said Vice President and Minister of Finance, Mr Ndaba Gaolathe, at the Launch of the 2026 Botswana Country Focus Report, Monday in Gaborone.

He said there was a scope for a sharper emphasis on execution, project preparation and on the institutional capacity required to move viable projects to financial growth and implementation.

Mr Gaolathe also said government was building a more productive and diversified Botswana, digitally enabled and increasingly connected to markets beyond the border of Botswana.

“Opportunity, employment, empowerment and fulfilment must be widened as the economy grows. The two tests are execution, more execution, super execution, ultra-execution, mighty execution,” he stated.

The report comes at a difficult point in Botswana’s economic cycle, evident in the weakness of the diamond market which exposed how heavily Botswana’s fortunes remained tied to one commodity, a difficulty, Mr Gaolathe said government sought to address by building a high-income Botswana that was digitally enabled, export driven, people centred, economically diversified and every citizen was empowered, employed and fulfilled.

Africa Development Bank group deputy director-Southern Africa Regional Office, Ms Moono Mupotola, said the report came at an important time for Botswana as it navigated one of the most consequential turning points marked by the turndown of the global macro-economic environment since 2020.

She said the downturn associated macro-economic vulnerabilities of the economy had been emphasised, especially those associated with the continued dependence of the civil economy.

In 2025, Botswana’s economy contracted by 0.77 per cent, reflecting a weak dynamic demand and production, Ms Mupotola said.

She also stated that the report estimated that Botswana’s development conditions under Vision 2036, 12^th National Development Plan and the Botswana Economic Transformation Programme would require significant investment that could not be financed through traditional public finances alone.

“Cognisant of this, the Government of Botswana has indicated 60 per cent private-sector-led projects under BTEPs, 116 private projects with an estimated total investment pipeline of P510 billion over the next decade,” said Ms Mupotola.  ENDS