African financial markets are showing signs of progress, with most countries posting stronger results as economic conditions stabilize and regulatory reforms take hold. Yet limited trading activity continues to restrict their ability to attract investment, mobilize domestic savings and offer businesses alternatives to traditional bank financing. Botswana’s two-place drop in the 2026 Africa Financial Markets Index, even as the continent’s overall performance improved, illustrates the difficulty of building deeper and more resilient capital markets. The...

President Duma Boko used his address to the United Nations General Assembly on Wednesday to press for changes to the global financial system, arguing that developing countries need cheaper, more reliable financing to expand their economies, create jobs and sustain essential public services. Speaking at the 81st session of the General Assembly in New York, Mr. Boko called for an overhaul of the international financial architecture. Developing economies, he said, continue to face borrowing costs...

Solar Industries India Limited has established an explosives subsidiary in Botswana, committing an initial US$325,000 as the company expands its international operations and seeks a stronger foothold in Southern Africa. The new company, Solar Explochem Proprietary Limited, was incorporated on Sept. 29, 2026. Solar Industries holds a 65 percent stake through Solar Overseas Mauritius Limited, its wholly owned subsidiary in Mauritius. The investment gives the Indian explosives manufacturer a formal presence in Botswana, where mining...

The conveyor belts are moving again. After a punishing slump that emptied government coffers, weakened trade and laid bare the peril of yoking a nation’s fortunes to a single glittering stone, Botswana’s diamond industry has begun to stir. The economy expanded 3.5 percent year-on-year in the first quarter of 2026, and rough-diamond output surged in the second. For a country where a shift in gemstone appetite can determine whether budgets balance, businesses grow and workers...

Botswana has sharply reduced its projected budget deficit for the 2026-27 financial year, as stronger-than-expected revenue from the Bank of Botswana and efforts to curb government spending improve the country’s short-term fiscal outlook. The deficit for the 12 months ending in March 2027 is now expected to be 9.26 billion pula, or 3.1 percent of gross domestic product, Finance Minister Ndaba Gaolathe said. That is down from the 26.35 billion pula deficit – equivalent to...