Adesina lays down ground rules on Diamonds for Development
Mbongeni Mguni | Monday September 21, 2026 14:05
The recent establishment of a secretariat and offices for the Diamonds for Development Fund has sparked excitement of an additional supporting mechanism for the country’s economic diversification and transformation hopes.
Powered by an initial investment of P1 billion by De Beers under its sales agreement with government, the Diamonds for Development Fund is designed to ensure that the benefits flowing from precious stones go beyond their lifespan and power broader economic transformation.
Founding chair, Akinwumi Adesina, who was the president of the African Development Bank between 2015 and 2025, says as the Fund is not a cash-grab, free for all affair. Rather, the board intends to be highly specific about its interventions, the type of funding, quantums and sectors, in order to support the kind of impact envisaged by the Botswana Economic Transformation Programme.
The Fund has appointed some of its ExCo, established an office in Gaborone and is filling out its governance structures, while finalising key supporting policies.
Mmegi: The Fund has established itself physically and is building out its staffing. What is taking place right now on the ground with the Diamonds for Development Fund?
Adesina: We are setting up all our governance structures so we have now fully on board an international diverse board that also includes people from outside different parts of the world. We've established our governance instruments and our governance committees for the board are working very well.
In the spirit of the kgotla or therisanyo, we have been listening to try and understand better how we can make ourselves strategic to supporting the government and the people of Botswana's aspirations for a nation that wants to diversify its economy, grow jobs, expand exports and of course become a high-income economy. So all the building blocks have been put in place and we are ready to go.
We have just finished consultations on our strategy because that’s what guides what you do, how you do it and how you measure what you do and how you are held accountable for what you do.
We are a publicly accountable institution and therefore people need to know what our vision is. Let me just be clear on what that vision is. That vision is to help transform Botswana's diamond revenues into diversified productive and sustainable sources of revenue that will advance Botswana's economic diversification, its export expansion, its industrialisation and the creation of jobs. That is where we are meaning w’re going to take the monies we have and use them to multiply them into a lot more that Botswana can use.
Mmegi: Let’s talk about the mandate and what exactly that is. I'm sure that you're aware there is an expectation that the Diamonds for Development Fund follows the model people are used to of funding interventions, projects and others.
Adesina: let me start with what we are not going to be. We are not going to be your standard development institution, funding little projects here and there. We are not going to be giving away grants. We are going to not be doing Mickey Mouse projects, little things here and there.
We are going to be a catalytic investment platform that uses public proposed money or resources to leverage private sector capital, institutional capital and global capital towards supporting the economic diversification of Botswana, its creation of jobs and also to make it competitive in whatever it does globally.
So we will measure ourselves not in terms of how much money we spend but how much money we leverage. So one Pula needs to become three Pula, five Pula, ten Pula. We are public purpose entity and we are going build, grow and spend money accountably, transparently for the public interest of the country.
Mmegi: Just to be clear, as you're setting up the Secretariat, you don't expect a line of people coming with proposals and saying fund this. How will the the Fund be going out to scout for these opportunities where it sees that it can leverage local, regional, international capital and these opportunities that can advance the economic diversification priority of the government.
Adesina: So as I said we're not a giveaway organisation. We're not going to be giving money away, that's not going to happen. We are going to use clear principles to guide what we do. So let me start with our values as an organisation because when you want to do something, your values guide you.
First is we are going to be using the concept of botho or making sure that what we do is for public interest. It is not about the first person that walks in through the door. We walk in the interest of the Botswana people.
The second one is humility. We understand we don't know it all, but we are going to listen, we are going to learn and we are going to be purposeful.
The other one is accountability. We are accountable to ourselves and to the people of Botswana and finally is transparency.
We are an independent institution with independent governance structures with our own criteria to determine what we fund or we don't fund. We are not a government entity, we are not an NGO, we are not De Beers Foundation, we are fully independent.
So our role is that we are put in a position of public trust. I see us as basically as trustees over resources to be deployed only for advancing the economic diversification and the export promotion and job creation in this country in a purposeful manner. We are not going to be giving money away any willy-nilly at all. It's not our model.
Mmegi: How will the Fund operate or move towards a decision where it intervenes?
Adesina: Let me tell you what the other principles that will guide us. First is leverage. We will leverage these monies that we have to become 3x, 5x, 10x as the fund grows. Remember this is not a fund for today or tomorrow; it's a fund for the future. It's intergenerational.
Second is that we will build strategic partnerships. We will not walk alone. We will walk in strategic partnership with others. I have had, we've had discussions with the Botswana Economic Transformation Programme and they've told us all the things that they want to do. There are also several other partners and so we will partner with government, with private sector with the industry. We will partner with the financial institutions and we will also partner with the global partners, development finance institutions and others.
Look at it in terms of a baobab tree. You know in a village you can’t put your hand around by yourself, but if you join hands with others you can do it. So we are going to work in partnership with others.
The third is that we are going to align. Alignment with, and I want to emphasise this, investable national priorities. Emphasis on investable. So that's very, very important.
The fourth one is that we are going to support strategic interventions in areas that we call strategic intervention areas, or those that will accelerate the economic diversification of the country. We're going to support those areas and so we're not going to just spend money on everything.
Also one thing that will guide us is that we will invest in portfolios, not isolated investments in one company or another company. It's a whole portfolio approach that we are going for. We will be looking at what does this add up to for the country, what does this add up to strategically
We will also build programmes, not isolated interventions.
I hope that makes it clear that we have clarity about who we are and what we are going to do. Let me say that even when we give grants, our grants are going to be repayable grants. There will be no free money.
Repayable grants will support small SMEs, will support entrepreneurs or other development projects, but they will get paid back.
Mmegi: Let’s talk about sectors of preference for the Fund or areas it is looking at, as well as how you intend to manage your risk?
Adesina: We work to support the country's economic transformation and those areas are already defined by the government in the Botswana Economic Transformation Plan.
We are not reinventing things, but we are choosing what we will support independently based upon critical analysis of these areas where we can make the most difference, how much we can leverage resources to those areas and what those areas mean in terms of clear issues.
What will it add to economic diversification? What will it do for export promotion, like value chains? What kind of value chains are they and can Botswana compete regionally there, globally there?
Also, what does it mean in terms of risk for things to happen? Let me say here and just say that we have a whole series of instruments that we will use. But the first thing I just want to identify is that we see this fund as Botswana's risk taker.
We will take risks that others would not take in the best interest of economic diversification of this country. To have economic diversification, the Botswana Economic Transformation Programme is going to be private sector-led, but the approach that we are taking is to have government-enabled private sector-led transformation. The government has to enable it, right?
I've been here for the last couple of days and one thing that I've seen is that it's not a lack of capital, but it's lack of bankable projects. So, we will, through this Fund, establish a project preparation facility that will help the country to prepare projects that are bankable.
So, what this Fund will do is that we will take the risk in the development of those projects, early stage risk that will crowd in others that would not want to come in.
We are going to be doing a lot in terms of risk-taking, credit enhancement, forced loss, whether it's forced loss protection, forced loss equity position and other types of credit risk management instruments to make sure we can de-risk projects and enable the funds that are coming in from private capital.
Private capital faces risks, but nobody is helping them to mitigate those risks. This fund will take that position to help to de-risk projects. I think that's very important.
And then the other thing that we will do from that is that we will also help to co-finance. So, we will do a lot in terms of equity, quasi-equity. We will support private equity funds, venture capital funds that can support the businesses of young people and small and medium-sized enterprises, including supporting those that are there already.
But we will have our own vehicles that can purposefully guide or support companies that we want to see move Botswana to global competitiveness.
Mmegi: Just finally, when do you realistically see a spade in the ground in terms of moving in on any opportunity or intervention that you see?
Adesina: Speed is important, but doing the things the right way is more important than speed. We're building the right foundations and we are already listening and interacting to see where the opportunities might be.
We expect to have our strategy completed by the end of October and our business plan completed by the end of November because you've got to know where you're going before you start going.
Then after that, it will be clear, clearer in terms of areas that we are going to deploy capital. Also, we are going to be building up the institution to have the capacity, institutional and human capacity in the various areas that we have.