Botswana Plots Billion Dollar Rail Network Expansion

As part its National Budget, Botswana Finance Minister Ndaba Gaolathe announced it will will allocate BWP 156 million for rail projects during fiscal year 2025-2026. This initial phase forms part of a larger infrastructure upgrade plan estimated at BWP 11.5 billion (USD 832 million) spread over several years.

In 2024, Botswana, Zimbabwe, and Mozambique singed an agreement to jointly develop a 1,700-km regional railway. Similarly, Botswana is mulling the Trans-Kalahari Corridor from the Ghantsi copper-rich region in Botswana to the Walvis Bay seaport in Namibia.

“Railway infrastructure forms the backbone of industrial and logistical operations and is a cost-effective and environmentally sustainable mode of transportation. To this end, for fiscal year 2025-2026, I am earmarking 156 million pula to cater for rail projects, which include the upgrade of the Limpopo Corridor and the Botswana Railway Workshop, as well as to the finance feasibility studies for the Mmamabua-Lephalale and Mosetse-Kazungula railway lines.”

Bostwana Finance Minister Ndaba Gaolathe

Currently, the state of Botswana’s national infrastructure, including road, rail, power, water and sewage, was not adequate to facilitate the realization of its vision for a ‘deep and inclusive economy.’ Botswana ambitions to become a regional logistics hub and thus need world-class connectivity projects.

At the moment, Botswana relies heavily on diamond and the Government is eager to diversify the economy. Thus, other sectors such as agribusiness and other minerals will be promoted and developed, but efficient and cost-effective transport is a key transformative area of endeavor.

In line with best practices around the world, the Government of Botswana plan to leverage Public-Private Partnerships (#PPP) and blended finance to accelerate the infrastructure upgrade agenda. A draft bill for PPP will be submitted for debate and approval to Parliament during the upcoming 2025-2026 financial year.