Top business stories we tracked in 2025
Mbongeni Mguni | Tuesday December 23, 2025 12:49
Gaolathe’s debut budget
Vice President and Finance Minister, Ndaba Gaolathe, delivered his inaugural budget on February 10, featuring lower spending than that approved for the prior financial year. However with the prolonged diamond slump still weighing on revenues, the figures pointed to a deficit of P12.2 billion or just under eight percent of GDP.
Gaolathe’s debut budget was noticeably skewed towards the new government’s human rights-based tenets, with greater social protections such as increases in the Old Age Pensions, plans for a P300 monthly allowance for newborns, free sanitary pads for female students and plans to narrow the gap between allowances for students in TVET Institutions and those of other tertiary institutions.
The diamond downturn, set against the planned higher social spending, always meant the numbers would be in trouble and for most of the year, authorities battled to steer away from a fiscal cliff.
External dollar debt was sourced from the OPEC Fund and the African Development Bank, while locally, government increased its forays into the capital market, nearing the 20% of GDP ceiling for domestic debt.
Revenues mainly came from SACU and domestic taxes, while diamond earnings remained under pressure. Gaolathe thus attempted to rein in spending through cuts to travel, overtime and the centralisation of Government Purchase Order decisions. Other planned interventions include an audit of the public sector wage bill, and possibly a review of project spending.
The Minister was expected to table the country’s inaugural mid-term budget review statement, with updated spending plans and revenue forecasts, in the December session of Parliament. However, as at Press time the eagerly awaited paper was yet to feature on Parliament’s order paper.
Sports betting takes off
The licensing of online betting companies last year, kicked in fully earlier this year, as the firms established their platforms and quickly racked up hundreds of thousands of subscribers.
The word of the year could easily be “slip” as punters stormed onto the various legal online sports betting platforms in search of the elusive winnings on offer. By April, the Gambling Authority estimated that the gambling population was approximately 550,000, with legal bets placed of P150 million in March alone.
More voices are calling for greater oversight on the gambling phenomenon to ensure the safety and health of punters, as well as to ensure that the companies maintain the highest ethics and responsibility standards, while also paying their fair share of taxes.
BPOPF flexes muscle
The Botswana Public Officers Pension Fund (BPOPF), the country’s largest pension fund and in a way, its single biggest investor outside government, flexed its muscles domestically this year. The pension fund bailed government out with a seven-year P3 billion loan featuring a two-year grace period and a two-year moratorium on interest repayments.
The pension fund also negotiated a P500 million loan to Letshego Africa, the homegrown, but now continental microlender. The loan was proposed to carry a tenure of 18 months and carry “market related cost of funds” in terms of interest and associated costs.
The BPOPF also announced that it was actively looking at more opportunities in the local private sector and infrastructure, as a way of boosting economic activity whilst earning returns for members.
Pula exchange rate changes
One of the contenders for the story of the year was the July adjustment to the Pula exchange rate framework, which not only quickened the downward crawl of the local currency, but also made it more expensive for banks to access foreign currency from the central bank.
The Finance Ministry and Bank of Botswana (BoB) decision was triggered by the need for greater export competitiveness as well as the dramatic slide in the foreign exchange reserves. The latter was due mainly to the prolonged diamond downturn, set against the economy’s import requirements. The July adjustment thus pushed banks to trade foreign currency amongst themselves and reduce their dependence on the BoB.
However, the move quickly resulted in economy-wide price hikes with foreign exchange rates at the banks spiralling upwards as the fledgling inter-bank market found its footing. Regulators such as the Competition and Consumer Authority picked a scent of profiteering within the price hikes by businesses and sent out monitors to keep watch.
While major corporates were able to negotiate rates with their banks, ordinary consumers quickly found themselves at the receiving end of lower rates for the foreign currency they wanted to sell, and high rates when they wanted to purchase foreign currency from the banks.
The Finance Ministry and the central bank are expected to unveil another decision on the Pula exchange rate by the end of December, with some expectations that the downward rate of crawl of the local currency may be further quickened.
Liquidity crunch intensifies
The liquidity crunch that has besieged the local financial market since last year, tightened early this year, as the downturn in diamonds continued.
The prolonged diamond challenges ate into government’s coffers, forcing the state to dip more into local borrowing for its needs and thus reducing the amounts available for other borrowers. In addition, with less in its coffers, government spending was also constrained, reducing liquidity in the financial market.
Banks found themselves competing more aggressively to attract and retain the deposits needed for loans and in raising their deposit rates, also hiked their lending interest rates to try and cover as much of the cost as possible.
In May, commercial banks uncoupled from the guidance of the BoB’s Monetary Policy Rate (MoPR) for the first time, raising their prime lending rates in response to the higher deposit rates demanded by the situation.
The central bank in October raised the MoPR to 3.5% from 1.9%, citing the need to realign with rates trending in the market. The Bank ordered commercial banks not to increase their rates and also ordered a pause on increases to their prime lending rates.
By November, the average prime lending rate amongst commercial banks was 7.18%, compared to the benchmark MoPR of 3.50%. The prime lending rate is the benchmark on which all other lending rates by commercial banks to their customers is based. It is also known as the rate that banks give their best customers ie the lowest.
Shake-up in SOEs
State-owned Entities (SOEs) also known as parastatals, were a hive of activity this year, with dismissals of CEOs and dissolutions of boards over several months. New faces were announced to lead the Citizen Entrepreneurial Development Agency (CEDA), the Local Enterprise Authority (LEA), the Companies and Intellectual Property Authority (CIPA), and the Botswana Development Corporation (BDC).
The boards of the BDC, Gambling Authority, CEDA, LEA and CIPA were also dissolved.
At the Gambling Authority, the CEO was suspended in August, while at Air Botswana, the general manager was dismissed after prolonged dispute over her suspension. At Botswana Railways, the leadership and board changed several times during the year.
The Public Enterprises Evaluation and Privatisation Agency, meanwhile, announced fresh plans to enhance efficiency within the SOE sector, a Herculean task for entities that annually receive billions of Pula in the budget, but are perennially listed amongst the worst performers in terms of financials and governance.
PrimeTime, RDC ‘war’ ends
RDC Properties gave up its year-long pursuit of property sector rival, PrimeTime, after its hostile takeover bid failed to secure the shareholder buy-in it sought.
RDC Properties closed an initial offer to PrimeTime shareholders on August 1 and subsequently announced that those who expressed interest in participating were less than the 44% equity stake it was seeking in the rival firm.
The offer followed the conclusion of an extended probe by the Botswana Stock Exchange after a tense period last year when PrimeTime accused RDC of, amongst others, weighing its stock down by introducing uncertainty over the takeover. A BSE committee eventually cleared RDC of nearly all accusations and approved the floating of the offer to PrimeTime investors.
The hostile takeover, a rarity on the BSE, was the subject of accusations, counter-accusations and denials between the two sides, as well as apparent tensions in the share registries, amidst apparent lobbying campaigns over the attempted corporate action.
Tati Mine is reborn
Tati Nickel mine reopened as Tataki Mine in September, with investors pledging to pump in $200 million to revive and revamp operations over the next decade, creating more than 400 direct and 3,000 indirect jobs for Batswana.
Formerly known as Tati Nickel, the base metal mining operation closed in 2016 during the global meltdown in the sector. Tati Nickel operated Phoenix and Selkirk mines prior to its closure.
Canadian firm, NexMetals snapped up Selkirk while Global Critical Resource Corp, a U.S firm, bought Phoenix for $15 million. The official reopening of Tati marked the first time a U.S company has broken ground in Botswana’s critical mineral’s space.
GCR expects $4.2 billion in revenues over the next decade from Tataki, with about $500 million pumped into domestic taxes.
Woes in coal, gold mines
Minergy, the country’s second colliery after Morupule Coal, spent the year in the doldrums, with production suspended earlier in the year and a creditor launching a legal suit demanding the operation be placed in judicial management for the recovery of debt.
In October, the mine’s board asked for the company to be suspended from trade on the Botswana Stock Exchange in order to engage the legal challenge.
Minergy’s troubles are largely caused by the slump in global coal prices, which have resulted in the company and other producers competing for the same, small inland market in South Africa. Government, a major creditor to Minergy via various agencies, is pursuing a debt to equity conversion as well as other fundraising activities and deals to resuscitate Masama.
Meanwhile, the country’s sole gold mine, Mupane, is also engaged in a legal battle, as bidders who participated in an auction in June have taken their dispute all the way to the Court of Appeal.
While gold prices have surged to never-before-seen levels this year, Mupane and its creditors have not benefited as the mothballed mine remains in limbo due to the disputed sale process.
Anglo, De Beers and govt
Arguably the biggest business story of the year is government’s pursuit of a majority stake in De Beers. Initially reluctant to declare its clear interest in bidding for Anglo American’s 85% stake in De Beers, President Duma Boko earlier this year confirmed that Botswana would seek to increase its interest from the current 15% and aim for full control.
The race became heated with the official entry of Angola as a competing bidder, although talks between the two sovereigns have since reportedly resulted in an arrangement. Consortiums led by former De Beers executives are also part of the bidders.
With Anglo due to soon finalise a shortlist of bidders for its stake in De Beers, the race to control De Beers has generated tomes of analysis and debate.
Recently, President Boko has hinted that while Botswana is going for the full 85%, the country is willing to then negotiate forward equity deals with other parties. He has also said the country and its panel of top level advisors, has a plan to return De Beers to profitability.
The iconic diamond group incurred losses of $189 million for the half year to June 30, on the back of the deflated global market for natural diamonds.
BETP, NDP hopes
The National Development Plan 12 (NDP) and its accompanying Botswana Economic Transformation Programme (BETP) proposed hundreds of billions of Pula in spending, as well as major policy changes over five years.
NDP 12 represents the greatest injection of private sector capital ever sought by government, while the BETP is the boldest attempt at economy-wide transformation and diversification ever made in the country’s history.
Critics have said the moonshot comes at a time when the economy can scarcely afford to cover the basics. However, proponents of the NDP and BETP say the economy is actually suffering the pains of long-delayed diversification and because of this very reason the moonshot is not only necessary but critically required.
Because extraordinary crises require extraordinary measures, the NDP naturally had to carry an abnormal load of “Business Unusual,” spending so bold, planning so radical and targets so ambitious that would reverse decades of declining economic and social indicators, to reset the country’s developmental trajectory.
The BETP involved a rigorous review of the country’s economic baseline, policy gaps, and execution bottlenecks. Its architects then identified sectors with the greatest catalytic potential before embarking on a three-to-four week period of intense cross-sector engagement to convert ideas into execution-ready, investment-grade projects. From 7,000 ideas, just 186 were picked and packed into the NDP.
Speaking at a kgotla meeting in Kanye on Monday, Boko said his administration’s focus going forward would be execution.