The International Monetary Fund (IMF) has advised Botswana to come up with a raft of initiatives in order to move away from mining as the recent weakening of the global demand for diamonds has made the country’s near-term outlook more challenging. The Washington-based institution highlighted that one of the major important risk to the outlook in the near term is the sluggish growth in key advanced and emerging economies that could lead to continued weakness in the demand for diamonds and copper. “The main short-term challenges are to manage the current economic downturn associated with the reduced global demand for…
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Local short term insurer—Botswana Insurance Company (BIC) has urged the public to take Risk Management as a core component of their business and personal planning to alleviate or mitigate against possible exposures and risks. The company noted that risk management focuses on identifying, analysing and taking action in managing the risk factors that may make business objectives vulnerable. “Organisations need to understand that having insurance is just another way of minimising loss and is not a substitute for risk management,” advised the insurance company. “Proper risk management and disaster reduction interventions imply control of future natural disasters because it doesn’t…
South African Energy Minister, Tina Joemat-Pettersson has confirmed to join the Ministries of Madagascar, Zimbabwe, Malawi and Mozambique at the Southern Africa Energy & Infrastructure Summit (SAEIS) , taking place between the 4th and 6th of May. Over 30 speakers from the SADC region will celebrate regional co-operation at the meeting and discuss the future of energy production, promoting energy and infrastructure projects that require both private and public-sector support in order to be realised in the region. The South African Minister will address investor questions on regional cooperation and South Africa’s supporting role within the SADC. Additionally the ‘African Forum for Utility Regulators (AFUR)’ has provided…
QG Africa Hotel LP, a Mauritius-based fund managed by QG Investments Africa Management Ltd, a company of the Quantum Global group has acquired 100% interest in the InterContinental Hotel Lusaka from Kingdom Hotel Investments for a gross consideration of USD 35.9 million. The transaction closed on 31 March 2016. Considered a city landmark, the InterContinental Hotel Lusaka is situated at a prime location in Zambia’s capital. The 244-room hotel benefits from a strong image amongst international travellers, and offers significant repositioning and expansion potential. Jean-Claude Bastos de Morais, Founder of Quantum Global said: “I’m very pleased with this first acquisition…
De Beers said there is a growing diamond demand this year as compared to the close of 2015—with the Anglo American unit reporting a third consecutive rise in sales. The company, with most of its meat in Botswana, announced that its rough diamond sales for Cycle 3 of 2016 that took place in February generated $660 million as opposed to $617 million in February. De Beers stated that the continued stability in polished diamond prices and sales of polished diamonds at the wholesale level supported a reasonably positive environment for rough diamond demand for the third consecutive sales cycle.…
Stanbic Bank Botswana has pledged commitment towards further developing the local sporting fraternity with the added benefit of moving communities forward. This comes in the form of a 3-year sponsorship commitment towards the Gem Diamonds Kalahari Challenge, set to take place from 10th-12th June 2016. The now annual mountain bike stage race already has a strong reputation for working to raise funds to develop communities on the cycle route. The bank will serve as the Presenting Sponsor for the period commencing in 2016, with a sponsorship value of P500, 000. This is 2nd year the Bank has participated in the annual…
Ten businesses, aiming to shape the future of financial services have begun their journey on a 13-week intensive start-up programme in Cape Town. The Barclays Accelerator, powered by Techstars, is an intensive start-up programme of networking, mentoring and development, aimed at supporting breakthrough in financial technology (fintech) innovations. It is the first time that the programme is being run in Africa. More than 450 start-ups from over 45 countries applied for one of the ten places on the programme. The chosen fintech companies range from a solution empowering the financial literacy and inclusion of people with special needs, to one…
Botswana’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP) grew in the last quarter of 2015, data by the Statistics Botswana has shown. The numbers body said quarter-on-quarter, the economy grew by 4.9% as opposed to -3.5 reported in the third quarter. However, the domestic economy decreased by 1.9 percent in the fourth quarter of 2015 compared to an increase of 3.9 percent accrued in the same quarter of 2014. Stats Botswana noted that the estimated GDP at current prices for the fourth quarter of 2015 was P34, 904.1 million compared to a revised level of P37, 326.6 million registered in the third quarter…
The number of planned hotel rooms in Africa has soared to 64,000 in 365 hotels, up almost 30% on the previous year, according to new figures from the annual Hospitality Group Hotel Chain Development Pipeline Survey. The increase is largely down to strong growth in sub-Saharan Africa, which is up 42.1% on 2015 and is significantly outstripping North Africa which achieved only a modest 7.5% pipeline increase this year. A major shake-up in the rankings by country saw Angola, never before listed among the top 10, push Egypt out of second place, due to a major deal there signed by…
Over the past few years, Africa has been top of mind for foreign business investment, often referred to as one of the last frontiers for economic growth and development. However, given the recent economic downturn and headwinds that the continent is experiencing – is the region still offering opportunity to investors? The World Bank’s January 2016 Global Economic Prospects (1) reported that Sub-Saharan Africa’s real Gross Domestic Product (GDP) grew at its lowest rate since 2009 in 2015 with a growth of a 3.4%. This was down from the 4.6% and 4.9% growth that was reported in 2014 and…