Banks’ runaway profits slow down in tough 2025

The country’s commercial banks are amongst the economy’s most consistently profitable sectors, defying periods of downtrends and weaknesses over the years. Bank of Botswana figures indicate that whilst the banks largely skated through the three percent contraction in 2024, the continued weakness in the economy in 2025 began to knock on profitability.

Preliminary estimates by the central bank show that net income for the banks declined to P3.79 billion last year, from P4.14 billion in 2024. Whilst the figures represent a reduction, they also underline banks’ continuing profitability even in periods of economic contraction. In addition, whilst the P3.79 billion in net incomes last year represented a dip, it was still the second-best performance since the pandemic and was more than double the numbers of the pandemic year of 2020.