Government’s P388bn plan to shake up and save the economy
Government has unveiled the draft National Development Plan 12 (NDP 12), which outlines Botswana’s roadmap for economic transformation, inclusive growth, and sustainable development.
Built around concerns of poor implementation and service delivery, the plan seeks to place the private sector at the centre of economic growth while advancing digitalisation, employment creation and reducing poverty.
With a proposed budget of P388 billion for the 2025/26 to 2029/30 financial years, NDP 12 places much emphasis on robust implementation, monitoring, and evaluation frameworks to ensure accountability across all ministries and programmes.
Presenting the draft this week, State President Minister Moeti Mohwasa said the plan aims to move Botswana toward a private-sector-led, export-oriented economy that is less dependent on diamonds and more resilient on global shocks.
“Economic sectors in driving the development agenda and the economy are mining and energy, agriculture, manufacturing, tourism, sports and creative arts, infrastructure and financial services and digitalisation, as well as healthcare, education and social protection as social sectors. These priorities reflect a deliberate choice to drive growth that is inclusive, fair and meaningful,” he said.
While there is slow progress in economic diversification, Mohwasa said reforming education and skills training, promoting youth entrepreneurship, and creating jobs in key sectors such as agriculture, tourism and ICT will be key priorities under the new plan.
Unemployment currently stands at 27.6% overall, with youth unemployment as 38.2%, a figure that government intends to drastically reduce through the implementation of targeted reforms.
Speaker of the National Assembly, Dithapelo Keorapetse, said despite Botswana’s strong democratic record since independence, democracyalone has not translated into broad-based prosperity. “Many of our people are still wallowing in abject poverty without decent housing, water and sanitation and electricity. Therefore this NDP 12 is a roadmap guiding national development growth for the coming years and this marks a shift from a government led model to one that is sector based and private sector driven,” he said.
Keorapetse added that the plan seeks to build an economy capable of adapting to climate change, diversifying sustainably and delivering inclusive growth that benefits every Motswana.
Further, with fiscal pressures mounting and national revenues declining, government is targeting a deficit of 2.6 – 2.9% of GDP, and intends to rebuild the Government Investment Account, improve spending efficiency, grow non-mining revenues and attract more strategic investments and partnerships.
At the heart of NDP 12 lies the Botswana Economic Transformation Programme which supports three social sectors being healthcare, education and social protection.
Therefore, under the NDP12, government has pledged to review social programmes to enhance social protection initiatives and improve the lives of Batswana.
These include provision of sanitary pads, monthly allowance of P300 for new born babies, allowance increment of TVET students with first phase introduction of P1,600, increasing student allowance to P2,500 and old age allowance from P1,400 to P1,800 as well as building 100 000 houses.
