IKEOLUWA OGUNGBANGBE
President Duma Boko told Aliko Dangote in Gaborone that Botswana is interested in big-ticket investments rather than small ones, and asked him to bring the country’s pension funds into whatever he builds there.
The Botswana President courted the Nigerian Billionaire to invest in the country’s cement industry as well as look at possibilities of driving the N$200 billion Trans -Kalahari rail project which is being developed in partnership with neighbouring Namibia.
Africa’s wealthiest man paid a courtesy call on the Botswanan president, who recalled meeting him previously in New York and at the African Union summit in Addis Ababa, and said contact had continued through intermediaries including the Botswana Stock Exchange.
Boko’s argument was about execution rather than ideas. He said African governments have the policies and the plans but have not delivered on them, and that implementation is the continent’s central failure. He described the Dangote Group as a model of implementation at scale with a record across the continent, pointing to its operations in Ethiopia and Congo-Brazzaville and to the refinery it is planning in Kenya.
He also said governments have not built an environment that supports African investors and entrepreneurs, and that with the continent’s population heading toward a quarter of the world’s by 2050, it cannot continue importing basic goods including detergent.
The specific opportunity he raised is rail. Boko said construction of the Trans-Kalahari line should begin this year, and that projects of that scale generate demand for cement and other materials, adding that Botswana is ready to move quickly.
He then asked Dangote to approach Botswana pension funds and other domestic institutions about investing in major projects alongside him, and called the visit the start of what he described as a spectacular journey. Three meetings were scheduled for the day.
TOWARDS A REALITY
Namibia and Botswana are now closer to the procurement phase of the Trans-Kalahari Railway (TKR) project after completing its feasibility study.
The two countries will now focus on financing mechanisms, transparent procurement strategies and community engagement for the project.
The railway is estimated to cost about N$200 billion (US$16 billion) and will span about 1 500 to 1 690 kilometres, linking Botswana’s coal fields and mineral-rich interior, including Mmamabula, to the Port of Walvis Bay.
Speaking at a recent meeting of technical partners and the two ministers responsible for transport on Friday, Namibian Minister of Works and Transport Veikko Nekundi said the feasibility study is now complete.
He said the completion was a testament to the persistence of the Joint Technical Committee, Joint Steering Committee and consultants.
“I thank them wholeheartedly for their rigour. However, our task now is to interrogate its recommendations with discipline, to address the financing mechanisms, to agree on transparent procurement strategies, and, crucially, to ensure that community engagement is not an afterthought but a continuous, living feature of this project,” Nekundi said.
He said the railway belongs to the communities along its route.
“Therefore, as we deliberate, we must embed the principle of local participation into our decisions. Namibian and Batswana contractors, professionals, and suppliers must be given genuine opportunities at every phase; not as charity, but as a deliberate condition of how this project shall be executed,” Nekundi said.
Former Botswana Minister of Transport and Infrastructure Noah Salake said December 2026 should not arrive before the two countries have agreed on when construction of the TKR will commence.
“Our people want to see the first step that we are on. They yearn for a logistics system that will put food on their table. I am told that in the first phase this corridor will employ about 6,000 Batswana and about 4,000 Namibians. In the first phase,” he said.
Salake said the railway will be vital in modernising transport infrastructure between the two countries and make it easier to transport goods, including coal from Botswana to Walvis Bay.
“For me, the TKR project is more than just steel tracks. It is more than enhancing our logistics ecosystem. It is a monument to the deep historical solidarity, friendship and numerous possibilities that would exist for our people if we built this rail corridor that Bismarck and company attempted to bury many years ago,” he said.
Dangote already produces cement across ten African countries through Dangote Cement, in which he holds 87.45%, and the company is the largest producer on the continent. His refinery outside Lagos processes 700,000 barrels of crude a day and has applied to Nigeria’s Securities and Exchange Commission for an October listing targeting a $5 billion raise.
Botswana is the second southern African government to court a Nigerian industrialist in recent weeks. Mohammed Dewji, the Tanzanian businessman, met Boko in Gaborone last week alongside the central bank governor and the stock exchange leadership, days after pledging $250 million to Mozambique.
What both visits reflect is a country trying to diversify away from diamonds, which have funded the Botswana state for five decades and are now selling into a weaker market.
Africa Business Report and and additional reporting by Namibia Business Review
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