President Duma Boko last week penned a sweeping $12 billion (about P160 billion) investment package from Qatar’s Al Mansour Holdings in a landmark investment deal for the government that will also assist in the much-needed job creation. The agreement, signed in partnership with state-owned Botswana Development Corporation (BDC), will deploy capital into infrastructure, energy, mining, diamond beneficiation, agriculture, tourism, cybersecurity, and defence. For a country whose fortunes have been tied to the volatility of the diamond trade, the sheer scale of the commitment signals an attempt to diversify and re-anchor growth on multiple pillars. “This historic move will be enough to address immediate challenges facing the country,” Boko declared in a statement on his official Facebook page.
The Qatar investment comes on the collapse of Botswana’s diamond exports in 2024 amid global oversupply and weakening demand, cutting GDP by three per cent and threatening another contraction this year. The downturn has exposed structural risks in an economy long praised for prudent fiscal management but still concentrated in a single commodity. Investors will be watching closely to see whether the Al Mansour partnership can meaningfully reduce that dependence. The investment package is expected to prioritise infrastructure upgrades and energy projects, two areas where Botswana has lagged in competitiveness, as well as the development of downstream industries in diamonds, moving beyond extraction into cutting, polishing, and refining. Agriculture and tourism, both flagged by the government as under-exploited pillars of diversification, are also included in the deal.
