Botswana is working hard to reduce its dependence on South Africa – and on diamonds – after being hit hard by the Covid-19 pandemic.According to Duncan Bonnett of Africa House, the country has faced some serious challenges over the past two years as the price of commodities and diamonds dropped amidst the global pandemic.“Not only did the price of diamonds drop significantly, but so did the demand,” he told Freight News. “Even before Covid-19, the Botswana economy had been slowing down – and being so linked to South Africa in terms of inf lation and interest rates, it has been impacted by developments here as well.”He said in the case of Botswana, it was often true that when South Africa sneezed it got the cold.Another challenge has been the lack of uniformity in the application of Polymerase Chain R e a c t i on Te s t s (P C R -Te s t s) f or Covid-19 by member states of the Trans-Kalahari Corridor (TKC) Secretariat. This was a major hurdle for many truck drivers transporting goods between South Africa, Botswana and Namibia. Botswana’s no-nonsense approach has faced some backlash. The country is also using the pandemic to boost its manufacturing sector, w ith reports now out that a new vaccine, developed by t h e Te x a s Children’s Hospital Centre for Va c c i ne Development and Baylor College of Medicine in the United States, will be produced in Botswana by NantBotswana, a joint venture between the Botswana government and South Africa-born billionaire Dr Patrick Soon-Shiong’s NantWorks. Earlier this month it received 100 million doses of Pula Corbevax, dubbed Sub-Saharan Africa's first Covid-19 vaccine.According to Bonnett, developing its manufacturing sector is an important move for the landlocked country, but it will not be an easy task.“Diamonds are such a critical foreign exchange earner for the government and will remain so for the foreseeable future, but they realise they need to diversify the economy,” he said. “ Tr y ing to develop a manufacturing sector with a population of only 2.5 million is going to be extremely difficult unless they become export focused. That in itself is going to be a massive undertaking, considering that they have Africa’s biggest industrial base on their doorstep and all their other neighbours are also trying to diversify their economies.”Bonnett said the country’s industrial ambitions were to some extent crippled by its small population, small neighbours, neighbours with similar ambitions, or the big industrialisation already ongoing in South Africa.“The country is further challenged geographically in that it has large distances to cover and requires a logistics network that is efficient and well-functioning to make its offering competitive.”He said road infrastructure was relatively good and the new Kazungula Bridge over the Zambezi River had opened up some opportunities for the country. “There are still challenges with the bridge crossing, and therefore challenges for Botswana accessing some of the markets it needs if it is to actively grow its manufacturing sector.”The bridge and One-Stop Border Post have been seen as a key regional integration project, and expectations are high that they will improve southern African countries’ access to international markets as they improve connectivity to major seaports.
