- Botswana has surpassed Morocco as Number One in Africa
- Ranked second best by Fraser Institute under PPI after US state of Nevada
- Botswana’s mining practices considered attractive to global investors
Botswana continues to cement its position as the world’s mining hub, with the latest annual mining survey of 2022 compiled by the Canadian-based think tank, Fraser Institute, ranking the country top in Africa.
Overall, under the Policy Perception Index, which is the report card to governments on the attractiveness to their mining policies, Botswana is ranked as the second best mining destination in the world.
The first is the US state of Nevada, which occupies first position under PPI and also tops under the Investment Attractiveness Index. According to the survey, the Policy Perception Index (PPI) is a composite index that measures the overall policy attractiveness of the world’s 62 jurisdictions covered in the survey, including Botswana.
The index is composed of the survey responses to policy factors that affect investment decisions. “The Policy factors examined include the uncertainty concerning the administration of current regulations, environmental regulations, regulatory duplication, the legal system and taxation regime, uncertainty concerning protected areas and disputed land claims, infrastructure etc.,” says the report.
Fraser Institute researchers indicated that Botswana being ranked the second under PPI has proven the country’s ideal investment policies for mining, dislodging Morocco after ranking number two in 2021. “Botswana took the second spot held by Morocco which dropped to position 10 during the 2022 survey,” the report notes. “Along with Nevada and Botswana, the top 10 ranked jurisdictions are South Australia, Utah, Newfoundland and Labrador, Alberta, Arizona, New Brunswick, Colorado, and Western Australia.” The United States of America, according to the survey, is the region with the greatest number of jurisdictions (4) in the top 10, followed by Canada (3), Australia (2), and Africa (1) respectively.
On the other hand, the survey notes that the 10 least attractive jurisdictions for investment, based on the PPI rankings (starting with the worst), are Zimbabwe, Guinea (Conakry), Mozambique, China, Angola, Papua New Guinea, the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), Nunavut, Mongolia, and South Africa. Botswana also performed well under the Investment Attractiveness Index indicator, ranking in the top 10.
Fraser Institute’s Investment Attractiveness Index (IAI), formed from both the Policy Perception Index (PPI) and the Best Practices Mineral Potential Index, measures the attractiveness of a country based on policy factors such as onerous regulations, taxation levels, quality of infrastructure, and other policy-related questions that respondents answered to as asked.
Tax regime
Some of the attractive enhancing policy factors that could be factors in positioning Botswana as the ideal investment destination for mining companies is the corporate tax regime levied on companies.
According to information from Botswana Unified Revenue Service (BURS), Botswana’s corporate tax rate is 15 percent or 25 percent and it is split into two tiers, being basic company tax of 15 percent or a special tax rate of 5 percent for manufacturing and for companies in Botswana International Financial Services Centre (IFSC). There is also an Additional Company Tax (ACT) of 10 percent, which applies to both tax rates. Botswana’s corporate tax rate is relatively low as compared to other mining jurisdictions such as South Africa (28 percent), Kenya (30 percent), Zambia (30 percent) and Namibia (32 percent).
