Asianet Pakistan Private Limited

Toronto-listed junior explorer One Bullion says new high-grade assay results from its Vumba Project are strengthening the case for a potentially significant gold discovery in Botswana, as exploration interest builds in the country’s underexplored greenstone belts.

The company reported gravity-finish re-assays from five previously over-limit samples, returning a top grade of 30.8 grams per tonne gold, alongside results of 22.2 g/t, 17.55 g/t and 11.0 g/t.

The samples were collected from artisanal pits, stockpiles and dumps at Vumba and followed earlier fire-assay results that had exceeded the 10 g/t reporting threshold.

While the grades are considered strong by exploration standards, One Bullion cautioned that the results are based on selective grab sampling rather than a formal mineral resource estimate.

Still, the company believes the results are encouraging.

One Bullion said the mineralised samples span multiple artisanal workings and geological host structures across roughly 2.5 kilometres of strike, suggesting the mineralisation may extend beyond isolated pockets.

That matters because continuity is what turns interesting geology into a viable mining story.

Chief executive Adam Berk said the latest results reinforce the company’s view that Vumba hosts meaningful high-grade mineralisation warranting further work, including drilling.

The company had earlier reported visible gold and selective grab samples grading as high as 679 g/t and 207 g/t, figures that drew attention despite the early-stage nature of the exploration programme.

Beyond Vumba, One Bullion said Botswana’s environmental authorities have approved the Environmental Impact Statement for its Maitengwe Exploration Project, clearing another hurdle for exploration activity.

The developments come as Botswana seeks to revive gold exploration following the closure of Mupane Gold Mine in March 2024.

Botswana’s small businesses in the catering and butchery sectors are coming under mounting pressure as the suspension of slaughtering cloven-hoofed animals following the Foot-and-Mouth Disease (FMD) outbreak disrupts beef supply chains and pushes operating costs higher.

For many small, medium and micro enterprises, beef shortages are no longer just a supply issue – they are becoming a survival issue.

Botswana Informal Sector Association secretary general Mpho Matoteng says the month-long restrictions have left many small operators scrambling to source beef from FMD-free zones, a process that comes with added transport costs, permit requirements and reduced margins.

‘Business is difficult for our people at the moment because beef is scarce,’ Matoteng told Sunday Standard.

‘For those who have been able to secure it, they have to navigate the complexities of obtaining permits and transporting slaughtered meat. This comes with significant costs.’

The strain is beginning to show across the informal food economy, where small caterers and butcheries depend heavily on affordable and predictable beef supply.

Some businesses have responded by raising prices to protect already thin margins. Others have simply shut their doors.

‘While some have opted to increase food prices, others have unfortunately shut down their businesses,’ Matoteng said.

The situation has been compounded by higher prices at the Botswana Meat Commission, leaving smaller operators with few affordable alternatives.

The outbreak’s consequences extend beyond local lunch counters and butcher blocks. Botswana’s beef export access to the European Union has also come under threat after the outbreak affected Zone 11, home to the country’s only EU-approved slaughter facility in Ramatlabama.

For SMMEs, however, the immediate concern is cash flow.

Access Bank Botswana has delayed the release of its audited financial statements for the year ended December 2025, citing an unresolved audit matter that remains under review.

In an update to shareholders, the Botswana Stock Exchange-listed lender said publication of the results has been pushed back because of what it described as a ‘single open matter’ still being assessed as part of the audit process.

The delay extends uncertainty around the bank’s annual performance, particularly as listed companies are expected to publish audited financial statements within regulatory timelines.

Access Bank, however, sought to calm investor concerns, insisting the unresolved issue does not affect the bank’s underlying financial performance, capital adequacy, liquidity position or its ability to continue operating as a going concern.

The lender did not disclose the nature of the outstanding matter, leaving the market with limited clarity on what has held up the final audit sign-off.

The latest announcement follows an earlier cautionary notice issued on March 27 and a subsequent update on April 15, suggesting the delay has persisted for several weeks.

The board said management remains committed to governance, transparency and regulatory compliance, adding that the audit process is expected to be concluded on or before June 3, 2026.

Until then, shareholders have been advised to exercise caution when dealing in the bank’s securities.

While the bank’s reassurance may temper immediate fears over financial distress, prolonged delays in audited reporting tend to unsettle investors, particularly when details of the unresolved issue remain undisclosed.

For a bank, where confidence is currency, opacity can prove almost as damaging as weak numbers.

The focus will now shift to whether Access Bank meets its revised deadline and whether the eventual results provide clarity on what triggered the hold-up.

Shrinking government to allow the private sector to grow should be our nation’s motto. That is how it works and has worked all over the world. Even those nations frequently held up as paragons of welfare and compassion have moved on.

You see the cash crunch we are facing with your own eyes. Go to a government building for a meeting, and you see things for yourself. They can’t even serve you bottled water. They are unable to serve simple refreshments, even though that was not always necessary in many cases. So the signs of the cash crunch are out there for everyone to see.

But the long and short of this cash crunch is that, over time, the public sector has become outsized. There is no running away from that. This is where the correction needs to take place. And we all understand that the correction is bound to be painful. Over time, many in this country have behaved as though the government, by nature, has a perennial source of funds. They never imagined that the government could one day run short of money, despite repeated warnings from esteemed international organisations.

They saw countries in the region struggle, with some even failing to pay salaries on time but could not conceptualise that, something that happens to a country that has a large and unproductive public sector compared to the private sector. You need a bigger private sector simply because that is where wealth creation occurs. The bulk of the stuff they do in government adds little to wealth creation.

We have resisted calls to reduce the public sector. And we have even turned the notion of the privatisation of state-owned enterprises into a secular heresy. The very mention of the name privatisation is akin to using a swear word. However, no one gains out of this state of affairs. No one gains from continuing to bury their heads in the sand.

The cash crunch is apparent when you visit public schools or hospitals. The schools are in disrepair, while the ability of some hospitals to provide nutritious food to patients is at risk of being compromised. Surely this is not where we want to be.

There is a tendency among the professional class in government to try to sit out the current crisis, hoping that the situation will somehow improve. While hope is a good virtue, it is not a strategy.

The strategy for turning the situation around should follow what others have done around the world. Sweden is a case in point. We see Sweden and its fellow Scandinavians as our default example of the beauty of big government. However, Sweden has moved on since electing a market-oriented prime minister.

They have embarked on a series of reforms that have borne fruit. They have reformed the pension systems, reduced unsustainable unemployment benefits, reduced business red tape and cut corporate tax to attract investment. The tax cuts have led to the return of entrepreneurs who had fled Sweden’s notoriously punitive taxes. They have allowed the private sector to take over failing public schools and hospitals.

So this shows that a large public sector weighs down on growth and prosperity and needs to be pared back, irrespective of whether you are in Sweden or Botswana.

Botswana’s inflation rate surged into double digits in April, delivering a sharp cost-of-living shock that could complicate the Bank of Botswana’s policy path in the months ahead.

Latest figures from Statistics Botswana show annual inflation accelerated to 10.3 percent in April, up from 4.2 percent in March, marking one of the steepest month-on-month jumps in recent years.

The spike was overwhelmingly driven by transport costs after the March fuel price adjustment filtered through the economy and public transport operators raised fares from the start of April.

Transport alone contributed 7.4 percentage points to the inflation figure, dwarfing all other categories. The transport index rose 21.1 percent in a single month, with the cost of operating personal transport climbing 33.8 percent, while transport services rose 16.6 percent.

The data underscores how vulnerable Botswana remains to imported inflation shocks. Imported tradeables inflation climbed to 17.8 percent, from 6.6 percent in March, reflecting the pass-through effect of higher fuel and import costs.

Rural households appear to have taken the hardest hit, with inflation in rural villages reaching 11.8 percent, compared to 10.1 percent in urban villages and 9.6 percent in towns and cities.

Beyond transport, inflation pressures are broadening. Insurance costs jumped 13 percent, helping push miscellaneous goods and services up 6.8 percent.

More worrying for policymakers, core inflation is beginning to stir. Trimmed mean core inflation rose to 8.8 percent from 4.8 percent, suggesting price pressures are spreading beyond one-off administered increases.

For households already stretched by stagnant incomes, April’s inflation print signals that the squeeze is no longer confined to the petrol station – it is moving across the economy.

Botswana’s worsening fiscal position is emerging as a growing threat to economic recovery, with the Bank of Botswana warning that rising government borrowing could drain liquidity from the financial system and squeeze credit to businesses.

In its April Monetary Policy Report, the central bank painted a picture of an economy facing pressure from multiple fronts: weak growth, rising inflation, tighter liquidity and an expanding government financing gap.

While public attention has largely focused on inflation and the recent interest rate increase, the deeper concern may lie in the state’s increasing appetite for debt.

The revised 2025/26 budget projects a deficit of P25.5 billion, equivalent to 9.3 percent of GDP, up from the original estimate of P22.1 billion, largely due to weaker mineral revenues as the diamond market remains under pressure. For 2026/27, the deficit is projected at P26.4 billion.

With government investment balances critically low and part of the financing gap still unfunded, authorities are leaning more heavily on borrowing, including domestic debt instruments.

For the central bank, that carries consequences.

The report warns that greater government borrowing could crowd out private sector access to credit at a time when businesses already face tight liquidity and slowing economic activity. Commercial bank credit growth slowed to 2.6 percent in February, down from 5.8 percent a year earlier, suggesting lending appetite is already weakening.

The Bank’s decision to raise the monetary policy rate by 200 basis points to 5.5 percent was partly aimed at improving monetary policy transmission in a strained liquidity environment, not simply containing inflation.

For Botswana’s private sector, the risk is straightforward: as government borrows more to stay afloat, less room may remain for businesses trying to fund expansion, investment and survival.

Despite repeated talk of economic recovery and transformation, Botswana remains firmly trapped in the grip of the diamond downturn.

The Bank of Botswana says weak global demand for diamonds, shifting consumer preferences and slow progress in economic diversification continue to weigh heavily on growth, exposing the country’s enduring dependence on its most important export.

In its April Monetary Policy Report, the central bank said overall economic performance remains weak, constrained by subdued global conditions, structural challenges in the diamond sector and sluggish transformation efforts.

Botswana’s economy contracted by 0.7 percent in 2025, following a 2.8 percent contraction in 2024, underscoring how the economy has struggled to regain momentum even as parts of the non-mining sector continue to expand. Mining GDP fell 14 percent last year, while diamond mining alone contracted 14.9 percent.

The central bank’s assessment offers a sobering reminder that Botswana’s diamond problem is no longer merely cyclical.

Global rough diamond prices fell 4.5 percent in the first quarter of 2026 as weak demand, excess inventories and persistent uncertainty continued to pressure the market. The report also flagged the growing threat from lab-grown diamonds, which now account for an estimated 20 to 25 percent of market share, particularly in lower-value segments.

The fallout is already showing in public finances.

Lower mineral revenues have forced the government to widen its budget deficit projections, while the central bank warns that continued diamond weakness could deepen fiscal pressures, strain foreign exchange reserves and complicate recovery efforts.

For all the rhetoric around diversification, the Bank’s message is unmistakable: Botswana remains dangerously exposed to a diamond industry undergoing structural change and time is running out to build a credible alternative.

Botswana’s residential property market lost momentum in 2025, with falling prices highlighting a growing divide between resilient demand for affordable housing and weaker appetite for higher-end homes.

Data cited in the Bank of Botswana’s April 2026 Monetary Policy Report shows the average price of residential properties sold fell 9.9 percent quarter-on-quarter to P888,055 in the third quarter of 2025, driven by declines in Greater Gaborone, Francistown and Selebi-Phikwe.

The figures suggest the housing market has entered another cooling cycle after a fragile post-pandemic recovery.

Botswana’s residential market weakened sharply in 2020 as economic disruption dented buyer confidence, with average prices falling from P802,379 in the first quarter to P720,000 by the fourth quarter. Conditions improved in 2021 and strengthened further in 2023, when prices recorded moderate gains, particularly in Gaborone.

That recovery, however, appears to have lost momentum.

Average residential sale prices slipped to P907,622 in the first quarter of 2025 before declining further later in the year.

The slowdown is not uniform across the market.

Affordable housing continues to show resilience, with steady demand for homes priced between P400,000 and P1 million, as well as rental units below P5,000 per month, according to property analysts Riberry Botswana.

By contrast, supply in the medium- and upper-end residential market increased, putting downward pressure on prices as buyers turned cautious.

The property slowdown mirrors broader economic weakness.

Botswana’s sluggish economy, pressure on household incomes and tighter financing conditions are weighing on demand. The Bank of Botswana says appetite for residential property loans has weakened because of affordability concerns, higher borrowing costs and the discontinuation of GEMVAS.