Our journey to Makgadikgadi Pan started at our departure point in Gaborone at 8am on Sunday. I was joined by other guests from the capital to Mosu and we cruised in a luxurious Ford SUV as part of the sponsors’ party.The vehicle made the journey...
A recent country report from the International Monetary Fund (IMF) forecasts that Botswana’s economy will face a growth deceleration this year, growing by only one percent compared to a previous estimate of 3.6 percent. This is mainly due to...
As bad as the diamond numbers are, some analysts on the retail end of the spectrum are seeing some positive signs.And the retail end is where the light is required. The slump that caused a 5.3% contraction in the economy this year, largely traces...
The question is, can a graduate who couldn’t find a job during COVID-19 in 2020 and still can’t find a decent job in 2024, say the economy is not in a recession? Certainly not, in fact for them the economy is still recessionary.Experts can talk...
According to the 2024/25 forecasts from the Finance Ministry, mineral revenues were expected to provide about 27% of budget revenues for the financial year, at an estimated P25.2 billion. Mineral revenues comprise taxes, royalties and dividends on...
In this instalment we will make the case that financial inclusion is a key cog development and as such it requires the collective effort of all players in any economy. It requires commitment, time, passion, resources, and knowledge sharing. It cannot...
While it may seem obvious, it is important to highlight that if people are not financially included, they are financially excluded. Period! There is no middle road. It is therefore important to discuss how of the factors supports financial...
The United States may not directly admit it, but to a great extent, the world’s most powerful military believes part of the reason it is losing allies in areas like West Africa, is because geopolitical rivals, particularly Russia, have amped up...
A banker by profession, Mma Saleshando is often media-shy. She tells The Monitor she was born in Gaborone but was raised in Mochudi. She was raised by her grandmother because her mother had her at a young age. She schooled in Mochudi all her life...
Mmegi: The recent world competitiveness rankings revealed the strengths and weaknesses of Botswana across an array of economic factors. Which areas do you think are worth harnessing in order to increase the competitive advantage of...
Joshua Sibonge, the chairperson of the Green Finance Mainstreaming Working Group, has a delightfully compact and enlightening explanation of why sustainability needs to be incorporated into the country’s budgeting process.As a principal economist...
At a time when the world is retreating from multilateralism and pushing back against globalisation, Africa and its Diaspora are mounting a historic attempt to forge closer economic, trade and cultural ties.Separated by thousands of kilometres of the...
It is generally acceptable by authorities and scholars that financial literacy, financial innovation, consumer protection and the architecture of the financial system are the among the key levers that drive financial inclusion. These four drivers are...
Here in Botswana, although unbearably hot, summer is the ploughing season; autumn, significantly drier than summer, is a season of feasting on the bounty of the soil; and spring, a prelude to summer, is the season for budding plants. Each of the...
The level of external public debt owed by African governments reached $1.2 trillion last year (P16.3 trillion), driven by the impact of the global financial crisis of 2008, the COVID-19 disaster, slowing growth, rising interest rates and the urgent...
During the recently ended Future of Mining summit, one common thread ran across the speeches of executives: the fear of synthetics. If synthetics aren’t all that, then why is everyone talking about them? Speaking economically, diamonds economically...
“I think the luck that we had in getting the refinery done was that people it would not happen.“People who were sabotaging us were less concerned because they thought ‘these guys are going to fail and they have entered into something that they...
Over the decades, the country has seen a number of brave men and women living with HIV going public about their HIV positive status and sharing their stories with the public in a quest to fight against the pandemic and also to find its cure. Those...
Depending on the point of departure and orientation of the protagonist therefore, financial inclusion can be a concept, a policy, practice or even strategy. Over the next few instalments, we will unpack this subject from different dimensions, its...
When Jeffry Moyo, a farmer in Gantsi arrived in this area in 2014, his mind was on one thing; farm and sustain his family. He had brought close to 150 goats with him. Moyo says he kept goats, but wasn’t aware that the area had many carnivores...