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Bank of Botswana figures released recently indicate that the difference between the two periods was higher net interest income and significantly lower provisions for bad or doubtful debts.Commercial banks’ net interest income in the first eight...

Writing in the group’s annual report for 2022 recently, First National Bank Botswana (FNBB) chairperson, Balisi Bonyongo noted the trend of heightened competition in the banking sector from both direct rivals and non-traditional financial...

Mmegi: What is the significance of receiving an operating licence to Yellow Card?Thophego: It has a lot of significance looking at the context of the African market. Botswana is more harmonised for innovations to come and thrive and while many people...

Local consumers are generally yet to recover from the COVID-19 knock on their disposable incomes, while inflation and interest rates are trending at historic highs and have further worsened the situation amongst households. Unemployment, which was...

Known as Ikaegeng XTL (Coal-to-Liquid), the ambitious synfuels project aims to use the billions of tonnes of coal lying untapped in the country to produce various petroleum fuel products for domestic use.Botswana Oil expects that the envisaged plant...

Already in use in some countries in Africa, the VAT e-billing system involves digitising the tax invoicing system to allow live updates of transactions to the tax agency.At present, the BURS estimates that it is losing between 30 and 50 percent of...

While the GCC has failed to update the valuation roll since 2008, it also faces a cash crunch that earlier this month was estimated at a deficit of P47.3 million. The valuation roll currently used by the local authority contains 55,000 properties and...

Figures shared by the Finance ministry this week indicate that the rebound in mining activity, particularly around diamonds, helped the budget recover to a surplus from a steep P16.4 billion deficit in the pandemic-hit 2020–21 financial...

Inflation dropped to 13.8% in September, from 14.6%, largely due to the fuel price decrease effected by the Botswana Energy Regulatory Authority early last month.However, a breakdown of inflation by Statistics Botswana suggests that the reduction in...

Comparisons with the trends over the same period are difficult to make as data for two months in 2021 is missing.However, numbers made available this week by Statistics Botswana indicate that from a figure of P871.4 million in May, the country’s...

At present, historical and updated information about the country’s mineral resources is stored physically, slowing down the processing of mineral rights applications as officers have to manually check records.The manual system also provides a...

The track and trace system involves placing a biometric imprint on all alcohol and tobacco products as they are manufactured or imported into the country, allowing the BURS to check that the correct tax revenue is being paid and that the products are...

Earlier this year, Authentix, a Texas-based authentication firm, was chosen by the Botswana Unified Revenue Service (BURS) to provide a “fiscal marking and inventory solution,” under a 10-year contract for a service known informally as 'track...

The cream of South Africa’s farming industry met on Thursday in Pretoria discussing challenges affecting the industry. While not appearing on the agenda and not mentioned officially by the speakers, the matter of the ban on certain horticultural...

According to the Banking Supervision Annual Report 2021 the BoB released recently, penalties of nearly P86,000 were made against three banks for violations, while another bank was asked to show cause why a fine of P100,000 should not be levied...