A budget for the ages: Time for Botswana business plan change :: Mmegi Online

Last week Friday 21st January 2022 edition of Mmegi, ran an article quoting a World Inequality Database Report showing that the richest one percent of Batswana earned more than 20 times the average Motswana.

This statistic has been steadily worsening with Botswana ranked one of the most unequal countries in the world. Unemployment has steadily been climbing over the past 15 years to reach 24% officially (unofficially I suspect if you remove Ipelegeng and other 'internship' programmes you probably get close to 35% and maybe even 45%-50% when only looking at youth).

The COVID-19 pandemic has also shot inflation through the roof, with no respite expected as oil prices continue to soar, Botswana Power Corporation (BPC) continues to lobby for tariff increases, parastatals like the Botswana Housing Corporation (BHC) push up rentals and food prices continue to rise whilst incomes remain stagnant and retrenchments loom.

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