The African Development Bank (AfDB) has approved a loan of $179.66 million to support Botswana‘s reforms for the restoration of post-Covid-19 pandemic fiscal stability and economic recovery.

The bank made this known in a statement saying that the funds for phase II of the programme will build on the successes of the first phase.

This, it said, will be by supporting policy measures designed to boost economic recovery, further ease private sector participation in the economy and promote climate-smart agriculture and industrial development.

The industrial development, it added, includes various revenue-enhancing measures, the establishment of a public procurement regulatory authority and facilitation of public private partnerships.

‘The programme will also propel private sector-led agriculture and industrial transformation’, the statement read.

‘It will achieve this through the approval of a national policy on agricultural development and transformation, creation of a meat industry regulator and improvement of the investment facilitation regime’.

The AfDB said in order to enhance resilience and social inclusion, the programme will strengthen the policy framework for micro, small and medium enterprises (MSMEs), promote the adoption of a technical and vocational training policy and rollout of a single social registry.

AfDB data shows that Botswana’s GDP expanded by 12.5 percent in 2021 as Covid-19 restrictions eased from a contraction of 8.7 percent in 2020.

‘The programme will directly benefit several government ministries, departments and agencies. Prominent among these are the Ministry of Finance, Ministry of Minerals and Energy, Ministry of Agriculture and Ministry of Trade and Industry, as well as the revenue service and the agencies tasked with overseeing private sector development’, it added.

Source: AfDB

Photo source: Jota @ BRAZIL