Botswana’s 2024 Budget Speech Notes Key Railway Projects

The Minister of Finance in Botswana, Peggy O. Serame, delivered the 2024 budget speech to the National Assembly on 5th February 2024.

The proposed budget allocation for the Ministry of Transport and Public Works for the 2024/2025 financial year amounts to two billion and ninety million Pula (P2.09 billion). This is an increase of eighty million Pula (P80 million) or 4.0 percent of the Ministry’s current approved budget of two billion and ten million Pula (P2.01 billion).

In addition, the Ministry of Transport and Public Works has been allocated the second largest share of the proposed development budget amounting to three billion, nine hundred and fifty million (P3.95 billion) or 13.3 percent. The proposed budget will cater for air, rail and bridge infrastructure projects.

The railway-related projects catered for in the budget presented by the Minister, include; optimal utilisation of dry port at Walvis Bay, development of inland dry ports, Botswana Railway workshop equipment, Mmamabula – Lephalale railway line, Mosetse -Kazungula Railway and the construction of Martins Drift Bridge.

Also covered in the 2024 budget speech is the – One-Stop Border Post and National Single Window initiatives. Botswana Unified Revenue Service has entered into a Systems Connectivity and Data Exchange program with Zambia and Namibia to foster integrity and greater transparency in cross-border transactions, for customs and tax purposes. The Zambia project was completed in May 2023 while implementation for the Namibia project is expected to be complete by May 2024.