Author

Mbongeni Mguni
Financial Journalist

Twitter: @MboBW

Email: [email protected]
  • Load-shedding returns after seven years

    On Thursday, the Botswana Power Corporation (BPC) spent the better part of the morning publishing extensive lists of outages which it said were related to forced outages at “power generation plants” and the shortage of electricity in the region...

  • Botswana emerges as preferred host for KP secretariat

    The Kimberley Process Certification Scheme, known informally as the KP, wraps up its plenary in Gaborone today (Friday) with delegates due to vote on confirming Botswana as the host of the secretariat.On Wednesday, BusinessWeek established that a...

  • Bank profits rise to P1.7bn

    Bank of Botswana figures released recently indicate that the difference between the two periods was higher net interest income and significantly lower provisions for bad or doubtful debts.Commercial banks’ net interest income in the first eight...

  • Bank profits rise to P1.7bn

    Bank of Botswana figures released recently indicate that the difference between the two periods was higher net interest income and significantly lower provisions for bad or doubtful debts.Commercial banks’ net interest income in the first eight...

  • Inside FNBB’s plan to stay ahead of the pack

    Writing in the group’s annual report for 2022 recently, First National Bank Botswana (FNBB) chairperson, Balisi Bonyongo noted the trend of heightened competition in the banking sector from both direct rivals and non-traditional financial...

  • Yellow Card Botswana relishes Africa’s first crypto licence

    Mmegi: What is the significance of receiving an operating licence to Yellow Card?Thophego: It has a lot of significance looking at the context of the African market. Botswana is more harmonised for innovations to come and thrive and while many people...

  • TransUnion survey finds consumers battered but resilient

    Local consumers are generally yet to recover from the COVID-19 knock on their disposable incomes, while inflation and interest rates are trending at historic highs and have further worsened the situation amongst households. Unemployment, which was...

  • Gov’t confident as P30bn synfuels project gathers pace

    Known as Ikaegeng XTL (Coal-to-Liquid), the ambitious synfuels project aims to use the billions of tonnes of coal lying untapped in the country to produce various petroleum fuel products for domestic use.Botswana Oil expects that the envisaged plant...

  • BURS plans e-billing to cut VAT fraud

    Already in use in some countries in Africa, the VAT e-billing system involves digitising the tax invoicing system to allow live updates of transactions to the tax agency.At present, the BURS estimates that it is losing between 30 and 50 percent of...

  • Millions of Pula slipping through GCC’s outdated rates roll

    While the GCC has failed to update the valuation roll since 2008, it also faces a cash crunch that earlier this month was estimated at a deficit of P47.3 million. The valuation roll currently used by the local authority contains 55,000 properties and...

  • Budget records first surplus in six years

    Figures shared by the Finance ministry this week indicate that the rebound in mining activity, particularly around diamonds, helped the budget recover to a surplus from a steep P16.4 billion deficit in the pandemic-hit 2020–21 financial...

  • Inflation declines but pain persists

    Inflation dropped to 13.8% in September, from 14.6%, largely due to the fuel price decrease effected by the Botswana Energy Regulatory Authority early last month.However, a breakdown of inflation by Statistics Botswana suggests that the reduction in...

  • Food imports reach P7.8bn

    Comparisons with the trends over the same period are difficult to make as data for two months in 2021 is missing.However, numbers made available this week by Statistics Botswana indicate that from a figure of P871.4 million in May, the country’s...

  • Gov’t ups ante against speculative mineral explorers

    At present, historical and updated information about the country’s mineral resources is stored physically, slowing down the processing of mineral rights applications as officers have to manually check records.The manual system also provides a...

  • BURS presses ahead with contested 'track and trace' system

    The track and trace system involves placing a biometric imprint on all alcohol and tobacco products as they are manufactured or imported into the country, allowing the BURS to check that the correct tax revenue is being paid and that the products are...

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