Browsing: Botswana

The Board of Directors of the African Development Bank Group (www.AfDB.org) has approved a $137 million loan to support Botswana’s economic recovery from the Covid-19 pandemic.

The funds, extended under the Bank Group’s Botswana Economic Recovery Support Program, will be used to enact multi-sector reforms that will increase spending efficiency, create jobs and drive inclusive growth.

The project has three components: enhancing domestic resource mobilization and mitigating fiscal risks to enhance macroeconomic performance and create fiscal space for spending on social safety nets; supporting private sector-led agriculture and industry to bolster productivity and value addition, and increase job opportunities; and offering business development services to micro and small enterprises to advance social protection and gender equity. The three components are expected to reinforce one another.

“The African Development Bank is providing support for reforms to enhance private sector-led agriculture, and transformation of the industrial sector,” said Leila Mokadem, …

BREXIT trade impacts in Southern Africa

If everything goes according to plan (and that’s a big statement), January 1st shall see the departure of the United Kingdom from the European Union, its single market and customs agreements.

As much as I would like to, it is becoming increasingly hard to believe that the parties will conclude a trade deal in time for the official divorce date. I am sceptical of a “hard” BREXIT as I believe that some sort of policy extension will remain in place for quite some time; anything else would be economic madness and given the current pandemic no politician would allow that to happen. (I know what you might be thinking but, luckily, that kind of stupid is currently reserved for leaders across the Atlantic).

The EU is South Africa’s largest trade partner while South Africa has long and in-depth trade relations with the United Kingdom. …

Africa has some of the most expensive mobile data services in Africa. With the increase in connectivity via smartphones, people in emerging markets can use their portable devices for more things each passing day. Most of us have a smartphone with mobile data that we can carry anywhere and as soon as we step home we switch to our Wi-Fi not to overuse our mobile data; which is most of the time unfairly overcharged.

However some people do not have the privilege to afford both mobile data and internet at home, so they opt for the more expensive but more portable mobile data. Everyday, people in emerging African countries are forced to take this decision and are sometimes charged the most expensive prices in the world for mobile data. What is important to know also is the dependency and impact of smartphones in lower income communities.

With a difficulty in …

The African Development Bank (AfDB) and the Botswana Development Corporation (BDC) signed a Line of Credit (LOC) totalling $80 million to help scale up key investments in Botswana.

The AFDB said in a statement that the Botswana Development Corporation will only lend to specific target groups, focusing on industrialisation including transport,  manufacturing and service sectors that have important development impact.

The repayment period will be over 10 years, including a two-year grace period.

Also Read:  IMF urges Botswana to start consolidating in 2020

“The African Development Bank is excited to collaborate with BDC to promote private sector development, as well as support broad-based economic growth in Botswana,” said  Mohamed Kalif, Manager, Financial Intermediation and Inclusion Division signing on behalf of the Bank.

Kalif said that the facility is the largest to be extended to a financial institution in Botswana and that the Bank is very proud of its partnership with …

The International Monetary Fund (IMF) has urged Botswana to start a fiscal consolidation programme in 2020 to reduce the budget deficit and contribute to a gradual rebuilding of its buffers.

“While Botswana still has some fiscal space that allows a gradual adjustment, fiscal consolidation should start in 2020, supported by both revenue and expenditure measures,” said the IMF.

IMF said the composition of the adjustment needs to be carefully calibrated to minimise the impact on competitiveness, growth and the most vulnerable in advancing consolidation.

By 2036, Botswana wants to do away with the model its economy being heavily reliant on mining and government expenditure as the country strives to become a knowledge-based economy and gain high-income status through the private sector and exports.

According to the IMF, this switch will spur a need to redo the macro-economic policy frameworks so as to increase the resilience of the economy and accelerate …

According to a report by the World Economic Forum on Africa, mega-solar projects – large-scale installations capable of producing upwards of hundreds of megawatts of power – are generating much-needed electricity in countries all over the world.

In sunny Southern Africa, however, the report says, a historic lack of public-private partnerships outside of South Africa and, until recently, Zambia, to develop such projects has left much of the region’s vast solar power potential largely untapped.

But Botswana and Namibia are poised to change this trend, the report says. The two neighbouring countries will be supported by the World Economic Forum’s Global Future Council on Energy – which includes organizations such as the World Bank Group, International Finance Corporation (IFC), African Development Bank, Africa Renewable Energy Initiative, New Partnership for Africa’s Development, the International Renewable Energy Agency (IRENA), and the US government-led Power Africa initiative to realise this dream.

“This multi-phased …