The recent rankings of the World Competitiveness Index revealed Botswana’s strong economic competitiveness across various indicators. Despite outperforming its African counterparts, Botswana faced a troubling issue highlighted by the infamous indicator of brain drain, casting a shadow over its otherwise impressive performance.
Brain drain occurs when highly skilled immigrants leave the country in search of better opportunities elsewhere, where they believe their talents will be more valued or better compensated. This trend serves as a crucial litmus test for talent acquisition in the world competitiveness ranking framework conducted by the Institute of Management Development (IMD).
Out of 67 countries, Botswana ranked 64th, positioning itself among the world’s poorest performers in attracting and retaining talent. This ranking underscores the country’s challenges in talent retention and acquisition, leading to a significant outflow of skilled manpower to predominantly Western economies.
Botswana’s talent exodus is not a novel occurrence by any means. During the early 20th century, Botswana had gained a reputation as South Africa’s labour reserve particularly in the 1940s when it was reckoned that over a third of Botswana’s male population reside outside the country, mainly working in the South African golden mines.
According to labour data obtained from South Africa home affairs records, in 1966 there were approximately 22,000 Batswana working in South African mines and their remittances added up to R1,150,000 roughly equivalent to 10 percent of Botswana’s annual exports.
Speaking to this publication recently, IMD Economist, Jose Caballero said that while the country was investing a significant chunk of its recurrent budget on education, the investment was not reflective of efforts to retain this talent when it lands in the job market. According to Caballero, it defeats investment sense to pour money into education training only to lose the trained skilled workers to better rewarding job markets.
“The country is doing well when it comes to investment in primary and secondary education, in actual fact it far outranks other countries but this is not reflective when you look at the brain drain factor. The country is losing talent massively to other countries” he said.
A trend analysis of Botswana’s fiscal expenditure reveals that the top three ministries topping the government’s recurrent budget spending for the past 5 years have been Health, Education alongside Defence and security.
This year the lion’s share of Botswana’s recurrent expenditure is education, representing almost a quarter of the total budget. According to the minister of Finance, the bulk of the budget will be used for wages and salaries in the ministry alongside re-capitalising parastatals under the ministry.
“The largest share amounting to P15.54 billion, which is 24.4 percent of the proposed recurrent budget, is allocated to the Ministry of Education and Skills Development. This amount is an increase of P500 million over the approved budget for the current financial year amounting to fifteen billion and forty million Pula P15.04 billion” she said
Skills are the oil that keeps the cogs of the economy moving smoothly, and Botswana has always been a key investor in upskilling its citizenry resulting in high literacy rates. Albeit an upbeat performance in skills training, the expected output of innovation and productivity is enjoyed by other economies, a paradox that pours cold water on the government’s investments.
According to Caballero, the country has further mismatches between its curriculum and the skills needed currently by the economy. Caballero said that the country is bullish on being a knowledge-based economy but lower education was lacking in teaching IT skills which form the basis of an economy being knowledge-based.
The goal to become knowledge-based represents efforts by the country to export skills and know-how to other economies, but the oxymoron on the ground is that the economy is exporting trained workers and not their skills.
A plethora of explanations quickly come to the fore to explain the reason for Botswana’s high brain drain levels, one of them being low worker motivation in the economy. Botswana’s labour performance in the IMD report ranked the worst in the world for worker motivation in 2023.
During periods of economic prosperity, businesses often experience growth, leading to increased job opportunities and wage growth. For employees, these favorable conditions translate into enhanced job security, better career prospects, and potentially higher incomes. As a result, job satisfaction tends to rise, as employees feel valued and optimistic about their professional future. They are more likely to engage actively in their roles, contribute innovative ideas, and take pride in being associated with a thriving organisation.
Conversely, as it has been for Botswana since the advent of the COVID-19 pandemic, the enduring economic downturns and looming recessions have a cascading effect on employee satisfaction. In times of financial uncertainty, businesses tend to implement cost-cutting measures, such as layoffs, reduced work hours, or salary freezes. This atmosphere of instability can lead to decreased morale, increased stress levels, and a sense of unease among employees. The fear of job loss and financial insecurity can overshadow other aspects of work, leading to decreased job satisfaction and a decline in productivity.
At the dusk of 2023, the government of Botswana, in a bid to improve local labour market conditions, increased the minimum wage to P2500. Minister of labour and Home Affairs, Annah Mokgethi disclosed that the minimum wage in the public service would see an increase to P2,500, effective from February 1, 2024. The escalation of the minimum wage has been a prominent subject of discussion in Parliament, given the government’s prior indication of its commitment to achieving this elevation before the culmination of the 2022–2023 financial year.
Botswana finds itself with the daunting task of creating a conducive environment for its trained manpower to find meaningful jobs in the economy that will remunerate their efforts fairly, but with competition from the international labour markets, it will be hard for the country to be at par with international trends.
