The Ministry of Finance last week released the Botswana Economic Transformation Programme (BETP) mid-year review report, which highlights significant progress recorded across various projects and sectors since the initiative’s launch.
The report outlines key achievements, development milestones, and critical areas requiring continued attention.
The success of the BETP rests on the effective execution of 186 prioritised projects, alongside legislative reforms and an enabling environment, across six economic sectors: Agriculture, Manufacturing, Financial Services & Digitalisation, Infrastructure, Tourism, and Energy and Mining. It also covers three social sectors: Healthcare, Education, and Social Protection.
These projects target a cumulative investment of around P514 billion and the creation of 512,000 jobs by 2036.
These nine sectors have been identified for their capacity to accelerate economic diversification, job creation, and inclusive growth. This aligns with BETP’s vision to deliver a digitally enabled, export-led, and diversified high-income economy where every Motswana is employed, empowered, and fulfilled.
This BETP Mid-Year Review represents an early marker of that commitment. It sets out the milestones achieved over the past six months, including legislative and systemic reforms that have unlocked progress across several projects and laid foundations for future success.
The report indicates that P510 million in potential investments has been unlocked and cleared to proceed. Three of 18 critical projects have been resolved, with land secured for the SSKIA SEZ East, Boitekanelo College, and Xinii Resort. It also states that titles and approvals have been converted from paper into ground-ready investment, while land bottlenecks are now resolved through a single, cross-ministerial mechanism.
Some of the key projects that the BETP is currently facilitating include the Tutume District Livestock Farming & Meat Processing Facility, Amen Herbals Nutraceuticals and Functional Foods Production, Hemp Innovations, Agriculture-Based Clusters, BUAN Campus Expansion, Botswana Dairy Processing Hub, NuCarbon Containerised Pyrolysis Plant, Dam Tourism, Xinii Resort, Capacity Building and Skills Development Centres, Khoemacau Copper Mine Expansion, ReVision Africa, Digital Education-Smart Schooling, and the Khoe Na Programme.
The BETP report further highlights that working with the Ministry of Lands and Agriculture has established “Land Labs”—an investment land facilitation platform created to resolve cross-sectoral land issues that have long delayed projects from reaching the ground.
The report indicates that land access has consistently been among the most persistent obstacles to investment in Botswana. Projects have frequently stalled despite securing funding and partners, held back by fragmented approvals, competing land-use designations, and slow administrative processes.
The platform works through three linked reforms: an escalation route for land allocation and acquisition issues, a weekly problem-solving meeting that brings relevant ministries together in one room, and a shared action plan that tracks each issue through to resolution. It is currently facilitating eighteen projects across tourism, education, infrastructure, energy, and agriculture, giving Botswana’s institutions a structured way to clear land bottlenecks and move investment from approval into delivery.
Many of BETP’s projects cannot proceed until the legal and regulatory frameworks that govern them change. Advancing those changes has been a central part of the BETP’s work, undertaken in close coordination with the ministries and regulators that carry each reform through drafting, consultation, and Cabinet approval.
“Not every constraint has been legislative. Where the obstacle has instead been regulatory, support has extended to the authorities responsible for finalising and implementing the rules in question. What ties this work together is a single coordinating role: tracking progress across ministries, identifying where a reform is at risk of stalling, and keeping it moving in step with the projects that depend on it,” reads the report.
