23 Sep 2026

The government is working on partnering with development stakeholders such as the United Nations Economic Commission for Africa (UNEP) with a view of building an economic model driven by digital technology, innovation and resource efficiency to boost productivity and improve the quality of life.

President Advocate Duma Boko relayed the view in a bilateral discussion with UNEP executive secretary and UN under secretary, Mr Claver Gatete, at the UN headquarters in New York City, United States of America.

He said the SmartBots project would be formally launched in November, and government intended it to continue as a collaborative effort between the state and UNEP, as a key flagship project to build capacity and digitalise the economy.

SmartBots is the country’s digital transformation strategy and action plan tailored to propel the country towards a knowledge-based, high-income economy by 2036. 

This is done through digital inclusion through providing connectivity at public places, digitalising government services, entrepreneurial startups at the SmartBots Lab at the Botswana Innovation Hub as well as boosting village connectivity.

President Boko said the Vice President and Minister of Finance, Mr Ndaba Gaolathe, as well as the Minister of Minerals and Energy, Ms Bogolo Kenewendo, had been engaging UNECA with the view of exploring modalities of cooperation between the country and the UN commission.

Moreover, President Boko said Botswana was eager to operationalise and gain traction on some of the good ideas that had been shared in order to diversify the economy. On mining, he said Botswana sought a leadership role in the Kimberley Process and would need the backing of institutions such as UNECA.

Mr Gatete, previously Rwanda’s minister of Finance and Economic Planning (2013-2018), and his country’s former ambassador to the UN at New York and high commissioner to the United Kingdom at London, prior to being appointed by the UN secretary general, Mr Antonio Gutteres, to head UNECA in 2023, sounded keen to work with Botswana.

“Botswana is one of the countries we are interested in because we believe there could be progress owing to the leadership, the political will. If we transform the economy and introduce successful technological programmes, we could use Botswana as a model of a country that works, and others can follow suit and benchmark from what is practically being done,” said Mr Gatete.

Adding her worth, Ms Kenewendo said Botswana sought to build capacity and expertise and value around the diamond industry and other mineral sector activities.

“We are also looking to build a think tank around our mineral expertise. The President has been very clear that we should use the expertise that we have around mineral resource management to support other African countries, in areas such as negotiating contracts,” said Ms Kenewendo.

She gave the example of Botswana having assisted a sister African state with a value proposition, through rethinking exploration, streamlining mining plants as well as introducing them to Botswana’s sorting capability and sales platform, they managed to increase the value gained from diamonds exponentially.

“That is something we put together for one country which for now I shall not name, and we are working on assisting another. We could now formalise this, and through UNEP assistance and our proposed think tank, we could create good value propositions. Not only for the diamond industry, but leveraging on the mining experience we have, for mining as it is transferable, responsible mining and credible sourcing,” said Ms Kenewendo. BOPA