Botswana new development fund has received $75m from De Beers, giving the diamond-dependent country a financial starting point for a difficult task: finding new sources of growth and employment beyond the industry that made it wealthy.
The money, confirmed in an October 21 joint announcement by De Beers and the government, was transferred to the independently governed Diamonds for Development Fund. It did not go directly into the Treasury, and the payment does not mean any new projects have been financed. That is the next challenge.
A fund takes shape
There is no shortage of ambition behind the initiative. What has been missing until now is a funded vehicle to start turning that ambition into investment.
Akinwumi Adesina, the former president of the African Development Bank (AfDB), chairs the fund’s independent 10-member board. Its first meetings in Gaborone in September included discussions with President Duma Boko, government officials, business leaders, financiers and development partners.
The board has been appointed, but its strategy, business plan and investment programmes are still being completed. The announcement named no recipients of funding, no first projects and no timetable for disbursement to businesses.
For decades, diamond revenues helped Botswana build roads, schools, hospitals and the institutions that underpinned its rise after independence. That achievement remains substantial. So does the country’s exposure to a market it cannot control.
The AfDB’s 2026 country report describes weaker diamond exports, widening fiscal deficits and shrinking foreign exchange reserves. It argues that Botswana needs structural reform and a broader economic base to strengthen its ability to finance development.
The IMF’s December 2025 assessment also warned that the decline in demand for natural diamonds could prove persistent. Competition from laboratory-grown stones, subdued demand in China and changing consumer preferences make a quick return to the old trading conditions uncertain.
As Africa Briefing has examined, the danger is not that Botswana has suddenly run out of diamonds. It is that the economic model built around them is becoming less dependable.
A bigger promise, but no guaranteed windfall
The fund forms part of the partnership formalised in February 2025 between Botswana and De Beers. The agreement renewed diamond sales arrangements and extended mining licences for Debswana, their equally owned mining joint venture, to 2054.
The initial $75m is only the first step. Under the original agreement outlined in 2023, further contributions over 10 years could reach the equivalent of about $750m. Their size, however, depends on the dividends De Beers receives from Debswana and therefore on the mining business’s performance.
That creates an uncomfortable contradiction. Botswana wants to use diamond income to loosen its dependence on diamonds, but a weak market could also limit the resources available to finance that transition.
Adesina’s task is to attract more capital
The fund is intended to do more than distribute money already provided by De Beers. Its stated aim is to attract private, institutional and international investors who can help finance productive businesses, expand exports and create jobs.
Adesina’s years leading the AfDB give him extensive experience of the financing challenges facing African economies. Whether that experience translates into viable investments in Botswana will depend on the fund’s eventual priorities and the quality of the projects brought before it.
Minerals and Energy Minister Bogolo Kenewendo has presented the initiative as a way of turning diamond resources into lasting prosperity. De Beers chief executive Al Cook has likewise emphasised the need to support new economic opportunities alongside the company’s existing mining interests.
Botswana is also looking elsewhere for capital. Its expanding investment relationship with China includes copper mining and cooperation across other sectors. Yet swapping dependence on diamonds for dependence on another mineral would not, on its own, solve the diversification problem.
Tourism, renewable energy, agriculture, manufacturing and technology all offer possibilities. None will become a major source of jobs simply because an investment fund now exists. Businesses need markets, reliable infrastructure, skilled workers and access to finance.
That is the argument running through Botswana’s debate over its economic future at 60 years of independence: success should be measured by enterprises that survive, exports that grow and people who find sustainable work, not just by the size of announced funds.
For now, the $75m transfer is a meaningful beginning. The more revealing announcement will come when the fund identifies its first investments, explains how they were chosen and shows what they are expected to deliver.
