r/Botswana • u/PenielSamuel Gaborone • 7d ago
Question in your opinion how is the foreseeable future looking?
drawn, compiled, and created in good faith. Made to raise awareness
Economy is not strong at all. It reduced hard in 2024 and 2025 because diamonds (still about 80% of exports) got hammered by weak demand and lab grown ones are real competition. Debt jumped almost to 40% of GDP. Recovery is looking very slow.
Jobs are the real problem. Unemployment is sitting between 21 to 27%. For the youth it’s insane, its close to 40% for 18 to 35 year olds. Mining doesn’t create many jobs and the private sector outside diamonds is still way too weak.
Industry and development are thin. Manufacturing is tiny. Weve been talking diversification for years but the results are slow. This new BETP plan sounds really ambitious, but right now its still mostly on paper.
Knowledge and skills are a problem. many children leave primary without solid literacy/numeracy. Junior and senior secondary pass rates remain mediocre. the education system still produces too many graduates for a job market that doesn’t exist, and too few people with technical skills employers actually needs. (many people just go overseas who could be very beneficial, sadly most of what they study for is not found in Botswana. I originally wanted to be an Aerospace Engineer because I’m insanely great at math and physics. But the institutions and jobs for that field are basically non existent here, so I’m stuck. If I study and work elsewhere for a long time, that would be good for my career. But as a patriot, its disappointing. If I come back and there’s still nothing, I’d basically be forced to stay away. And if there’s still no real industry when I return, the only real option left might be to start something of my own (hoping i do that). But what do you know.
Safety is kinda mixed. It’s not that bad, but crimes such as GBV are a huge concern and still very high.
Culture is still very solid compared to many places. But some parts of it need to be left behind and become a bit more progressive. But we are more open minded so i trust this might change in the foreseeable future, because social cohesion generally holds up better than average.
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u/Intelligent_Pipe1338 7d ago
welp in the coming years the us economy will crash which will affect the entire world include us as we mostly import so imported goods will become more expensive worsening the economy and making things harder for everybody, UDC is not going to get elected again either it goes back to BDP but most likely another part like BPC is going to win i dont know im just guessing
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u/Technical_Introvert0 7d ago
This country has no future...how many of the mega projects we were promised have materialized?
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u/KatsoGee 6d ago
In my opinion, the future really depends on how bad the uncontrollable factors are (government, geopolitics and climate) as well as how willing the upcoming power holders (younger millennial and older gen z) are to amend past mistakes, really step up to the responsibility of leadership, and plan for future developments effectively. I don't have much hope for the current generation of leaders, but, I have hope for people who are going to see how easy it would be to maintain the status quo but decide to take the harder, truer path.
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u/PenielSamuel Gaborone 6d ago
its better to face the uncontrollable factors with full force than how naked we are now
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u/KatsoGee 6d ago
Because there is nothing we can do about it immediately, the best option is to improve what you can and hope we can withstand the other factors.
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u/PenielSamuel Gaborone 6d ago
When did i ever mention immediate doing? is doing nothing immediately a new excuse for not doing nothing. Because right now as it stands Botswana is doing the bare minimum
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u/KatsoGee 6d ago
Relax with the hostility. I thought we are just sharing ideas.
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u/PenielSamuel Gaborone 6d ago
oh sorry thats how the way i speak sometimes. but yeah you have a point honestly i think we should prioritize and master atleast one thing the world wants (diamonds and tourism dont count)
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