Author

Mbongeni Mguni
Financial Journalist

Twitter: @MboBW

Email: [email protected]
  • Gov't budgets P890m for HB deal

    While Finance Minister Peggy Serame revealed on Monday that the HB deal was one of three strategic acquisitions government was budgeting for in the 2024–2025 financial year, she did not give specifics of the amounts involved.However, the draft...

  • Masisi shifts gears for G7 face-off

    The process of consulting with the Group of Seven on how to successfully clamp down on Russian diamonds while not harming innocent producers such as Botswana, has been likened to handholding an elephant through a china shop.Diamond sector veteran,...

  • BOCRA denies rejecting Starlink application

    In a statement on Wednesday, BOCRA did not mention Starlink by name, but said it had taken note of a media statement concerning a licence application by a “certain global satellite operator”.The media reports, which broke out last week, claimed...

  • Serame goes big with record P102bn spending plan

    According to Serame’s proposals, the 2024-25 budget should see revenues of P93.6 billion set against expected expenditure of P102.3 billion – the highest spending ever proposed in a single budget in the country’s history. The figures point to a...

  • Temo Letlotlo roars on but uncertainty clouds the fields

    Temo Letlotlo, which focuses on farmers’ output, has been hailed as a transformative intervention for a sector whose contribution to the national economy has hovered below five percent over the decades.ISPAAD, the old agriculture inputs programme,...

  • Trade deficit sinks further

    Statistics Botswana figures estimate that diamond exports in November dropped to P1.3 billion, from a revised P2.4 billion in October, pushing down overall exports from P3.9 billion to about P3 billion. Diamonds accounted for about 60% of exports in...

  • The other headache facing diamonds

    The numbers from the horror year diamonds experienced in 2023 are coming in and as expected, they make for grim reading. De Beers, the diamond giant whose partnership with Botswana produces the world second highest diamonds by value each year, saw...

  • De Beers’ sales perk up

    Preliminary receipts from the latest sales, held in Gaborone, were the highest since the seventh sales cycle last year, after which demand tightened even further, reaching COVID-era lows.Commenting on the latest sales cycle, De Beers’ CEO, Al Cook,...

  • Rapaport raps Belgium’s diamond industry ‘claw back’

    Botswana and other African producers are unhappy over the G7’s plan which states that from September all polished diamonds should be routed through Antwerp for certification that the stones are not of Russian origin. A G7 team that was in the...

  • Tlou completes 100km line

    The project effectively connects Tlou’s planned generation to the national grid, enabling the Botswana Stock Exchange-listed company to supply the 10MW it has been engaged to do by the BPC to provide to the country.In an update to investors on...

  • Giyani finalises P354m package for Kanye manganese project

    In a market update this afternoon, Giyani officials said the company had secured $10 million (P136 million) in funding from ARCH Sustainable Resources Fund LP, a private equity fund focused on “strategic, long-term investments in natural resources...

  • World Bank sees rosier 2024 for Botswana

    In its latest Global Economic Prospects (GEP) report released last week, the World Bank’s researchers added ten basis points to their June 2023 forecast of Botswana's economic growth for the year 2024.At 4.1%, the projected growth is higher...

  • G7 jets in but diamonds remain in jeopardy

    If the local industry was looking for assurances from the Group of Seven (G7) technical team that was in the country week, then many were sorely disappointed. After wide-ranging consultations in the country this week, including visits to the...

  • Food prices stubborn as inflation eases to 3.5%

    Statistics Botswana figures show annual food inflation dropped from 6.7% in November to 6.1% in December, while inflation associated with transport fell to 1.5% from 2.2%. Annual inflation associated with personal care fell from 8.9% to 7.7%.The...

  • Govt raises P770m debt

    Two Treasury Bills (T-Bill) were offered in the December 29 auction which capped a period in which the central bank has seen declining yields for the notes it has been floating. The three-month bill, which offered P400 million, received bids worth...

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