the monitor

Mining sector targets import substitution as next frontier

Maoketsa
Maoketsa

Botswana's mining industry is pushing to transform billions of pula in annual procurement spending into a new engine for economic diversification, arguing that local manufacturing and import substitution represent one of the country's biggest untapped opportunities beyond diamonds.

Speaking at the Future of Mining Summit in Gaborone last week, mining executives outlined a strategy that would see the sector leverage its vast purchasing power to develop citizen-owned suppliers, build local manufacturing capacity and reduce Botswana's dependence on imported goods and services.

The approach, increasingly being championed by the Botswana Chamber of Mines (BCM), seeks to reposition mining companies from being merely extractors of minerals to becoming anchor customers for emerging industries.

Editor's Comment
Appeal to public transport operators to exercise caution

Those who occasionally use highways like the A1 and A3 roads will bear testimony to have experienced this firsthand as they have been overtaken by overspeeding buses. Sadly, some of the passengers are the ones who urge some bus drivers to overspeed.The result of this madness is the horrific accident that claimed lives of nine people on Sunday evening near Lechana settlement along the A1 Highway.It is reported that the incident occurred after the...

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