Ministry of Minerals and Energy has commended KGK Diamond Botswana and Jewellery for supporting the “House of Botswana” debut at the JCK trade show which was held from May 31st to June 3rd 2024 in the United States of America.
Describing the presence and support of KGK Diamonds as invaluable in showcasing Botswana’s dynamic diamond industry, ethical practices, and commitment to sustainability, the Minister of Minerals and Energy Lefoko Moagi expressed honour and delight for their collaboration with KGK Diamonds.
Botswana was well represented during the JCK trade show with House of Botswana displaying its diamonds and jewellery and a further blessed presence of local designers.
All this represented the fact that Botswana is not only a mining country but it is championing for value addition with rough turned into polished diamonds and jewellery and exported to the US market and the rest of the globe.
“Our collaboration symbolise our collective commitment to ethical luxury through natural diamonds. Capitalizing on the positive outcomes for House of Botswana debut at JCK 2024, the intention is to have significant presence at JCK on an annual basis. This will require advanced planning and collaboration from all Botswana diamond industry stakeholders,” said Minister Moagi through a letter authored to the diamond cutting and polishing firm which manufacture jewellery using Botswana diamonds and gold.
KGK Diamonds ‘s journey has been remarkable, growing from a small entity to one of the largest diamond cutting and polishing facilities locally therefore setting a gold standard for other players.
“I commend KGK academy for being the first school in Botswana to be accredited for training Batswana in diamond cutting, polishing and jewellery manufacturing. Your dedication has empowered hundreds of Batswana and created opportunities.”
For his part KGK Diamonds Botswana Business Development Manager Siddarth Gothi expressed gratitude for the recognition from the government and went on to highlight that the aim is to localize operations and to ensure Batswana benefit from diamonds.
“We are really proud that we are part of the vision for the country to make Botswana a symbol of diamonds in the globe. So we will always see how we can support Botswana in marketing it’s diamonds ,something which is vital and quite needed especially during this tough times when natural diamonds are struggling. We are a country built on its diamonds, there is a huge potential we can derive from the country based on the available workforce,” said the elated Gothi.
KGK Diamonds Botswana’s efforts to accelerate exports to the USA under the Africa Growth Opportunity Act (AGOA)has been seen as a commitment towards driving economic growth and diversification.
“Majority of value addition is happening in Botswana factory and we are exporting much of the jewellery to the US market. Under the AGOA, we should have at least 35 percent of value addition of the goods locally but for now we will be doing 90 percent of value addition on the goods including diamonds and gold from Botswana in this jewellery manufacturing,” said Gothi adding that they use majority of citizens as their workforce and select locals as their brand ambassadors for their jewellery boutique, Entice.
KGK’s commitment to excellence, innovation and community empowerment has elevated the diamond industry in Botswana with 428 employees, comprising; 320 locals and 108 experts in the diamond cutting and polishing firm.
From the jewellery manufacturing, KGK has 59 employees comprising of 44 Batswana and 15 experts.
“We want to grow this factory to a 200 to 250 workforce facility in the short term. Once we have done that,we will like to go further in terms of jewellery manufacturing and this factory will be one of the major one’s leveraging on AGOA at its highest potential. We are just hoping that by 2025 the agreement will be renewed, which is vital for a country like Botswana which has underutilised AGOA but we will be able to get the maximum leverage of it and show USA that we really have the potential to export under the agreement,” explained Gothi.
