Africa’s ‘diamond in the rough’

One of Africa’s most dynamic economies is attracting the attention of property investors…

As one of the most successful economies and one of the most progressive and politically stable nations on the African continent, Botswana is ironically one of the least well-known countries in Southern Africa, and is ripe with investment opportunities, claims a spokesperson for Limpopo Lipadi Game and Wilderness Reserve.

Botswana, landlocked and bordered by South Africa, Zimbabwe and Namibia, is officially ranked by the credit rating analysts at Moody’s and Standard and Poor’s as the best credit risk in Africa, it has one of the most dynamic economies on the African continent and Transparency International rate Botswana as the least corrupt nation in Africa.  Significantly it is also the one country in Africa to have an advanced, progressive and thorough programme for dealing with HIV/AIDS.

Independent from Great Britain since 1966, Botswana has managed to maintain one of the highest economic growth rates in the world ever since and is considered a middle-income nation according to UN rankings. 

Tourism growing

Until recently the majority of the nation’s economy was built on cattle farming and mineral extraction – principally diamond mining – but in an intelligent effort to diversify the economy away from overdependence on these two sectors alone, the government of Botswana is doing everything it can to foster and develop its emerging tourism industry.

Tourism is a very strong area for development and there is massive potential in this industry sector in Botswana. Tourism focus is principally aimed at the promotion and development of conservation, safari, game and eco projects within the nation’s extensive nature reserves. 

To support economic diversification and to enable the development of the tourism sector specifically, the government has abolished foreign exchange controls, reduced corporate tax to an attractive rate of 15%, removed restrictions on the foreign ownership of local companies and adopted both a Privatisation and Competition master plan to bring foreign direct investment to Botswana.