Author

Brian Benza
  • Debswana output falls 16% on softer demand

    According to figures published by Anglo American, the decline was largely propelled by a fourth quarter 21 percent production decrease to 4.7 million carats as a result of a reduction in tonnes treated at Jwaneng and Orapa. “The decline was...

  • Gov�t seen funding ESP off-budget

    According to draft budget estimates for the 2016/17 financial year passed onto BusinessWeek, recurrent expenditure will be flat at around P44 billion while the development budget will be a mere P2 billion higher, largely to a P1.3 billion rise in the...

  • BSE fine-tunes tracking of shares performance

    Effective Monday (February, 01), the BSE says it will discontinue the computation and reporting of a metric called “ Weighted Price”. The weighted price, which is calculated by computing the volume weighted average price of stocks using...

  • Botswana vulnerable as food prices soar in SA

    The country, which imports over 70 percent of its food requirements from its neighbour, is likely to record similar price increases, although the depreciating Rand might temper the rate of increase for Botswana imports. Local inflation rose from 2.9...

  • Diamond sales rebound ahead of Monday�s budget

    De Beers, which is entitled to sell 86 percent of Debswana’s annual production, and hand 80 percent of that revenue to government, sold $540 million (P6.3 billion) worth of diamonds last week. This represented a 117 percent leap with De Beers...

  • High interest rates stifle property market growth

    Despite the prevailing low interest rates regime prescribed by the Bank of Botswana’s accommodative monetary policy, a late 2014 liquidity dearth has pushed up the cost of funds for banks leading to higher interest rates on commercial loans. In...

  • Another bumper payday awaits Choppies directors

    The Far Property Company, which is almost 100 percent owned by the two directors, is set to list on the BSE before the end of the first quarter this year. Far Property owns about 173 properties in Botswana and South Africa, the majority of them...

  • Economic recession looms

    Technically, an economy falls into a recession after two consecutive quarters of negative growth. Latest data recently released by Statistics Botswana (SB) shows that real GDP (year on year) decreased by 3.5 percent in the third quarter of 2015...

  • Choppies Kenya deal embroiled in P100m tax row

    Ukwala Supermarket’s bid to sell its outlets to Botswana’s Choppies Enterprises was last month stopped until the P104 million-tax dispute between the retailer and Kenya Revenue Authority (KRA) is settled. Choppies CEO, Ramachandran...

  • BSE geared for more bulls after record 2015

    At a time when most emerging markets were bearish due to the slump in commodity prices, exchange rate volatilities and overall economic slowdown, the BSE was resilient in 2015 with the mainstream Domestic Companies Index (DCI) firming 11.6 percent in...

  • Shumba secures partners for solar power tender

    Last year, the Ministry of Minerals, Energy and Water Resources issued a request for Expression of Interest (EOI) to construct, operate, maintain and decommission at the end of its economic life, a scalable solar power plant. The plant is earmarked...

  • IMF trims Botswana growth prospects

    The IMF had previously forecast the economy to grow at 4.4 percent in 2015. “After recovering strongly from the 2009 downturn, Botswana’s pace of economic activity is slowing in 2015 owing to weaknesses in the global demand for...

  • BTCL shares sale opens Monday

    Under the company’s Initial Public Offer (IPO), Batswana and citizen owned companies are eligible to buy a minimum of 1000 shares translating to P1, 000. No transactions cost will be levied on the buyers, although investors are required to...

  • BDC inks Lobatse automotive plant deal

    The factory will be relocating from South Africa where it supplied automotive wiring harness to the original equipment manufacturers of Nissan, Renault and Volkswagen vehicles. BDC head of communications and marketing, Boitshwarelo Lebang confirmed...

  • Economic headwinds underline rugged 2015

    The turmoil in the diamond market has hit government revenues hard in the past two years, a frailty that filtered down to the private sector and the general households. Exacerbating the situation in 2015 was the recurring water and electricity...

arrow up