- Tsaone Segaetsho
Out of 6 895 proposals submitted under the Call for Ideas for the Botswana Economic Transformation Programme (BETP), only 200 have advanced to the next stage, four weeks after the Programme’s launch.
This was revealed this week by Vice President and Minister of Finance, Ndaba Gaolathe, as he outlined the outcomes of the initiative’s sector-specific “labs” designed to accelerate the implementation of high-impact projects.
The BETP labs are intended to unlock new sources of growth through coordinated action in catalytic sectors such as agriculture, manufacturing, tourism, energy, infrastructure, and digital services.
“From the vast pool, we faced the painful task of prioritisation. It was not easy to select a small number from thousands. Some projects that entered the lab could not survive the stress test and rigorous scrutiny applied,” Gaolathe noted.
The Programme has now entered the laboratory syndication stage, where President Duma Boko, the Vice President, and Cabinet Ministers convened to review the outputs of the labs. The four-week intensive process was facilitated by the Botswana Bureau of Standards.
Gaolathe acknowledged that some unsuccessful applicants were “grieved” by the outcome, insisting their projects should have advanced further. “We understand these frustrations, but the labs are required to make difficult choices, focusing only on projects with the highest impact—those that are execution-ready and do not place unsustainable pressure on government coffers,” he explained.
Projects have been categorised into two streams: those ready for immediate execution with government facilitation, and “new opportunities”—transformative concepts that require further development or remain at the conceptual stage. The final report will detail how each initiative has been classified.
The BETP process is designed as a results-driven 12-week approach, leaving eight weeks of refinement and delivery after the labs. The labs are focused on nine catalytic priority sectors: six economic, Agriculture; Manufacturing; Infrastructure; Financial Services and Digitalisation; Tourism; Energy, Water and Mining, and three social: Education, Healthcare and Social Protection.
The initiative is being executed with technical support from PEMANDU Associates, a Malaysian consultancy renowned for its Big Fast Results (BFR) methodology. This approach has driven economic transformation in several countries and has now been adopted by Botswana. According to the government, the labs are centred on mobilising private sector investment, unblocking industry-wide bottlenecks, and ensuring alignment with the country’s National Development Plans.
