The Botswana Investment and Trade Centre received P1.16 billion in government funding over the past 14 financial years. During the same period, it says it helped facilitate more than P110 billion in investment and export value.
The figures — P29.106 billion in Foreign Direct Investment, P32.541 billion in Domestic Investment and Expansions, and P48.267 billion in export revenue — are central to BITC’s case for its role in Botswana’s economic diversification. The organisation says the activity has also created 51,855 jobs.
But the numbers also reveal the challenge facing the investment and trade promotion agency: turning investment into more jobs.
BITC’s 2025/26 performance update shows that while investment and exports exceeded their targets, job creation fell well short. The organisation closed the financial year at 91.9 percent overall corporate performance, against a 95 percent excellence target, amid subdued global investment flows, geopolitical uncertainty, inflation and tight budgets.
For Chief Executive Officer Keletsositse Olebile, however, the results show an organisation that continued to deliver despite a difficult global environment.
“This is our word to Botswana: we will keep playing our part in growing this economy, without pause and without excuse,” Olebile said.
“Botswana’s success is not a target we chase; it is a responsibility we carry.”
That responsibility is reflected in the year’s headline numbers.
Total investment reached P14.882 billion against a target of P13.6 billion. FDI reached P5.52 billion, or 110 percent of its P5 billion target.
Domestic Investment and Expansions reached P9.062 billion, 105 percent of the P8.6 billion target, while export revenue rose to P7.325 billion, 113 percent of the P6.5 billion target.
But jobs were a different story.
The Human Gap: Why Jobs Lagged
BITC created 4,918 jobs during the year, against a target of 13,600.
Olebile attributed the shortfall to three factors: the global economic downturn weighing on FDI, investors holding back planned expansions and delaying hiring, and large-scale expanders increasingly turning to automation instead of adding workers.
The result is a familiar tension in investment-led growth: investment can rise without employment increasing at the same pace.
BITC argues that its investment pipeline could help narrow that gap.
From Expo Floor to Citrus Fields
If 2025/26 was a year of resilience, Global ExpoBotswana was an attempt to build the pipeline for what comes next.
The event attracted 2,646 attendees and 231 local and international exhibitors, while more than 700 delegates attended the Pula Investment Conference. A Deal Book presented 26 bankable projects.
Among the headline projects is the Zotus Group Smart City, a proposed US$50 billion investment along the Trans-Kalahari Corridor with potential for up to 75,000 jobs.
Cheetah Cement Botswana has a US$50 million project expected to create 550 construction jobs and 120 permanent jobs.
In Selebi-Phikwe, the citrus project has already created 1,500 jobs and is expanding to Dikgathong, where lease negotiations for 1,300 hectares are under way with the Lesabokwe Trust.
Dangote Cement South Africa is investing P100 million and is expected to create 33 local jobs, with operations expected to begin in the fourth quarter of 2026.
Other projects are also progressing. Helicopter Horizon’s VIP heliport at Maun International is awaiting construction permits following Environmental Impact Assessment approval. Exilligen’s feed production plant near Gaborone is under construction and is expected to be completed in February 2027, while Orange Botswana’s Tier-Certified data centre in Francistown is at the design and engineering stage.
Re Godisa Botswana Is Not a Slogan
For Olebile, these projects form part of a broader strategy under Re Godisa Botswana.
“Re Godisa Botswana is not a slogan, it is a promise BITC makes and keeps,” he told stakeholders. “For over a decade, as Botswana’s lead Investment and Trade Promotion Authority, BITC has stood at the centre of the nation’s growth story, turning global capital into local jobs, local products into export earners, and bold ideas into built reality.”
He described the initiative as an invitation to Government, investors, entrepreneurs and citizens to participate in Botswana’s next phase of growth.
The Re Godisa Botswana mark itself draws on Botswana’s own skyline, including the Kazungula Bridge, Orapa House and the Onion Tower, as well as Parliament and the Courts.
Year Two: A Strategy Built for the Road Ahead
Looking to 2026/27, the second year of BITC’s 2025-30 Corporate Strategy, Olebile said the organisation enters the year with “a resilient investment pipeline, a diversifying export base, and a strategy built for the road ahead.”
The strategy has five broad priorities: contributing to Government’s ambition of P100 billion in annual FDI and 500,000 jobs by 2030; directing investment promotion towards the Botswana Economic Transformation Plan (BETP) and NDP12 priority sectors; improving Botswana’s competitiveness; strengthening the National Brand through a proposed Nation Brand Council and continued #PushaBW and Re Godisa Botswanaactivation; and expanding exports while improving financial sustainability.
It is supported by eight strategic thrusts, including high performance, project origination, strategic partnerships, digital transformation, national image building, support for the creative industry, financialsustainability and ESG integration.
BITC’s targets rise steadily through the strategy period, from 13,600 jobs, P13.6 billion in investment and P6.5 billion in exports in 2025/26 to 30,000 jobs, P30 billion in investment and P10 billion in exports by 2029/30.
That brings the story back to the central question facing BITC: whether investment can translate into more jobs and broader economic opportunity.
The organisation says its record provides a starting point. It now has to show that the next phase of investment will reach further into the economy and into the lives of Batswana.
Unveiling the 2025-30 Blueprint
Executive Director, Market Intelligence, Dr Margaret Sengwaketse, said BITC’s new five-year strategy is intelligence-led, brand-driven and aligned with a target of 30,000 jobs and P30 billion in investment.
According to Dr Sengwaketse, the strategy is designed to turn Botswana’s investment strengths into economic opportunities and jobs.
“Our mission is driving sustainable investment, boosting exports, and elevating Botswana’s brand through bold, intelligence-led decision making for economic diversification,” she said. “Our vision is transforming Botswana into a vibrant, resilient and globally competitive economy.”
A Nation at a Deliberate Inflection
The strategy is closely tied to the Government’s broader economic plans under National Development Plan 12, which places the private sector at the centre of economic expansion.
Dr Sengwaketse outlined targets that include annual economic growth of at least 10 per cent, attracting at least P100 billion in domestic and foreign investment every year, and creating between 450,000 and 500,000 jobs within five years.
The strategy also reflects changes in Botswana’s economic priorities, including reforms in the power sector, efforts to make the Botswana Meat Commission more competitive, a proposed rail corridor linking Namibia and Botswana’s western copper-belt, and expansion in tourism, agriculture, manufacturing, ICT and healthcare.
“Investor attraction and import substitution are now twin priorities, and our strategy had to speak directly to that,” Dr Sengwaketse said.
She identified six major shifts shaping Botswana’s investment landscape: green transition and industrialisation; ESG, carbon markets and climate finance; public-private partnerships and infrastructure financing; a diversified revenue base; health and social protection reform; and digital transformation and export growth.
“In short, as Dr Sengwaketse puts it, Botswana is no longer just selling stability. We are selling sustainability, innovation and impact. That is where intelligence-led promotion matters.”
The Targets
The five-year strategy sets annual targets that increase steadily through 2029/30.
For 2025/26, BITC targeted 13,600 jobs, P13.6 billion in investment and P6.5 billion in exports.
For 2026/27, the targets rise to 17,500 jobs, P17.5 billion in investment and P8 billion in exports.
For 2027/28, the targets rise again to 22,000 jobs, P22 billion in investment and P9 billion in exports.
In 2028/29, BITC is targeting 26,000 jobs, P26 billion in investment and P9.5 billion in exports.
By 2029/30, the targets reach 30,000 jobs, P30 billion in investment and P10 billion in exports.
“These are not just numbers,” Dr Sengwaketse said. “They are factories humming in Selebi Phikwe, tech startups coding in Gaborone, green energy farms glittering in the Kalahari, creatives exporting Botswana’s story to the world, and containers leaving our borders stamped Made in Botswana.”
Under the rallying cry Re Godisa Botswana, or Growing Together, Thriving Together, the strategy is ultimately aimed at attracting investment, expanding exports and making economic diversification more visible in the lives of Batswana.
“If the last 50 years taught Botswana how to build a nation of stability, the next five, with this bold, humble, agile and curious blueprint, will teach us how to build a nation of vibrant, enduring prosperity,” Dr Sengwaketse said.
