Botswana banking managers attending “Building Botswana’s Future” masterclass with author and innovation expert Robert B. Tucker in Gaborone, Botswana, June 23rd, 2026.
When diamonds were discovered shortly after this southern African nation gained independence in 1966, few could have predicted what would follow.
Over the next six decades, Botswana became one of the world’s great economic success stories. Through prudent governance, stable democratic institutions, and a commitment to public investment, this Texas-sized nation transformed itself from one of the world’s poorest countries into a proud middle-income country. Diamonds paid for roads, schools, hospitals, and infrastructure; they became the engine of prosperity.
Today, that engine is sputtering. While the sparkling minerals still account for the lion’s share of Botswana’s tax base, diamonds aren’t forever after all. For luxury consumers, diamonds are no longer “a girl’s best friend,” as the famous De Beers advertising campaign once proclaimed. Global demand, especially from China, has softened. Lab-grown diamonds are considered good enough. Tax revenue from exporting diamonds has plunged.
And that is the challenge I observed firsthand when visiting this Texas-sized nation, with a Houston-sized population of 2.5 million people. Botswana’s economic growth has stalled, while unemployment among the country’s young population remains dangerously high. Billboards in Botswana’s capital talk openly about food scarcity. Deep potholes in some highways go unfilled.
But the nation is not resigned to slipping back down the mindshaft of economic decline. Botswana’s Harvard-trained president, Duma Boko, has made igniting innovation and economic transformation his defining priority.
Since taking office in 2024, Boko’s bold bet has been to launch the Botswana Economic Transformation Program, an ambitious effort to innovate new sources of growth in financial services, digital technology, tourism, renewable energy, manufacturing, agriculture, and other sectors. Boko’s goal -- and that of his hard-charging finance minister -- Ndaba Gaolathe, is not simply to diversify the economy, but to reinvent Botswana as a more resilient, innovative and globally connected nation.
It won’t be easy. Building a new economy requires business and governmental leaders to think boldly and shake up familiar ways of doing business. In leading an all-day workshop with managers for state-owned Morupule Coal Mine in Palapye, Botswana, I challenged the group to think of themselves as energy providers to the nation, and to consider alternative uses for coal and for generating electricity.
Reinvention also involves tapping outside expertise. The Boko government turned to Pemandu, a Malaysian consulting firm led by Idris Jala, the former CEO credited with rescuing Malaysia Airlines from almost-certain bankruptcy. Pemandu’s method of national turnaround involves organizing a country-wide “innovation jam,” whereby any individual or organization can suggest new ways of advancing the economy. Those selected receive seed money to actualize their concepts.
Jala’s approach to nation-rebuilding has delivered results in Tanzania, Oman, Nigeria, Rwanda, South Africa, and Senegal. He and his team begin by assessing a country’s strengths and obstacles. Next, they bring together government officials, business leaders, investors, and experts from the most important economic sectors. During intensive working sessions known as labs, participants identify opportunities, blast away at mental barriers, and develop detailed plans for energizing each sector.
“Innovation and fresh thinking are no longer optional for Botswana,” notes Joseph Pheto, a former diamond-mining executive and founder and principal of Jorisma, a Gaborone-based leadership development consultancy responsible for my visit. “It is essential to building our next economy.”
Beefing up the tourism sector illustrates both the challenge—and the untapped opportunity. Botswana has built a global reputation as one of Africa’s premier safari destinations, with the Okavango Delta, Chobe National Park, and vast wilderness areas attracting travelers from around the world. Yet many international visitors arrive on tightly packaged safari itineraries, spend most of their time within a handful of iconic reserves, and depart, leaving much of the country—and much of their “share of wallet” —unexplored.
Jala’s transformation teams invite bold thinking by posing questions: How might Botswana encourage visitors to extend their stay? How might we venture beyond traditional safari circuits, and experience more of the nation's culture, history, innovation ecosystem, arts, cuisine, and entrepreneurship?
The opportunity is not simply to attract more tourists, but to innovate the tourism experience itself, creating new reasons to visit, stay longer, spend more, and become ambassadors for a country whose story extends far beyond diamonds and wildlife.
Such out-of-the-box thinking can drive diversification in other sectors: mining, manufacturing, and technology. Botswana’s leaders understand that diversification cannot simply mean replacing one commodity with another. The larger opportunity is to build an economy increasingly driven by knowledge, entrepreneurship, and new value creation.
That means fostering startups, attracting foreign investment, supporting technology ventures, strengthening higher education, and creating an environment in which talented young people can build companies rather than depend primarily upon government employment. It also means developing more of the value chain inside Botswana instead of exporting raw materials and allowing other countries to capture most of their economic value.
This same innovation imperative is being recognized across Southern Africa. Tafadzwa Chibanguza, CEO of the Steel and Engineering Industries Federation of Southern Africa, framed the choice starkly in Engineering News & Mining Weekly: “The strategic choice is one between an industrial economy that makes and builds things and exports value-added products, and an extractive economy that exports ore and imports finished products.”
In my workshops with business leaders, I observed that economic transformation ultimately requires a transformation in mindset from everyone and everywhere. Botswana’s domestic market is small, and venture capital remains limited, so promising ideas do not automatically become scalable enterprises. Creating an innovation ecosystem requires more than infrastructure and government programs. It requires talent, experimentation, risk-taking, patient capital, and a culture willing to challenge established ways of doing things.
Throughout my visit, I observed encouraging signs of progress. Government leaders have identified renewable energy, digital transformation, ecotourism, financial services, manufacturing, and advanced processing industries as strategic growth sectors. New investment initiatives are being launched, international partnerships are being pursued, and discussions increasingly focus on how Botswana can capture more value from its resources rather than simply exporting them in raw form.
Now comes the hard work of staying focused on execution. Diversification strategies are easy to announce and notoriously difficult to implement. Success will require persistence, investment, institutional reform, innovation conferences, private-sector participation, and a willingness to adopt a new mindset of possibility.
What struck me most during my conversations with Botswana’s up-and-coming managers was the growing recognition that the country’s future will depend less on what lies beneath the ground and more on what resides between the ears of its people.
That shift in mindset may ultimately prove more important than any single policy initiative.
This article was written by Robert B. Tucker from Forbes and was legally licensed through the DiveMarketplace by Industry Dive. Please direct all licensing questions to legal@industrydive.com.