As a country, Botswana has been making endeavours to diversify its economy since the economic boom of the 1990s, but we are worried that there has not been any tangible progress to show why millions of Pula were spent on consultancies that were meant to guide the exercise.
It is sad that years later, government is still trying to diversify its economy away from mining sector especially diamonds, but less progress has been made; yet taxpayers’ resources are invested on the drive.
Huge surpluses that the treasury pronounced over the years have made both the public and private spheres to have no reason to expedite the exercise.
Even when the recent recession hit in 2008, there were no lessons learnt because the country still heavily relies on diamonds as a major foreign exchange earner.
However, fears of a looming double dip recession heighten calls for an urgent need for both government and the private sector to intensify efforts to diversify the country’s economy away from mining.
Botswana was hit hard by the last recession (2008/09) mainly because the economy is largely dependent on one primary export commodity ÔÇô diamonds.
The dependence of the economy on one export has failed to cushion the country from external shocks as evidenced by the last recession when diamond prices slumped with consumers failing to buy the gem stones.
The result was the closure of the diamond mines accompanied by reduced foreign exchange earnings as a result of non-sale of the stones which are the country’s economic mainstay. The economy almost ground to an abrupt halt with thousands of workerlaid off from work.
The major setback from the recession was the huge budget deficits, but we have not yet learnt the lessons in that we still look up to diamonds.
With the looming threat, it is imperative that the country’s economic players
(government and the private sector) intensify their economic diversification drive efforts to ensure that this time around we emerge unscathed or if anything minimally affected.
For a long time, government has preached economic diversification yet on the ground nothing has happened.
It was right for government to identify sectors that would drive the economy forward; namely tourism, manufacturing and agriculture.
These ‘engines of economic’ growth were identified, but we are worried because less effort has been put into them to ensure these sectors were guided and supported to steer the economy forward.
We argue that there is a need to steer agriculture, manufacturing, tourism and other sectors to greater heights in order to cushion the economy from the effects of a slump in diamond prices.
If properly harnessed and nurtured these sectors have immense potential to steer the economy from the current over-reliance on diamonds and by extension the mining sector.
It is irrefutable that the country’s diamond resources face depletion in the future and the time is now to prepare the economy to be able to stay afloat.
Any delay to jerk up other sectors of the economy to sustain the economy’s future is suicidal.
After the past economic gains, it would be disastrous for this country to return to the status of one of the world’s poorest like was the case at independence.
It therefore goes without saying that no efforts should be spurred in sustaining this country’s economic growth which has seen the levels of poverty and unemployment reducing in the past.
We make these observations because we have seen such situations happen in other African states and we would not want to find ourselves faced with the same predicament.
It is better for the country to start now putting its act together to prevent the possible calamity that would befall us once the country’s finite resources have been depleted.
