The dawn of a new era for the diamond industry in Botswana (COMMENT)

Monday 27th March 2023 marked, in the words of President Dr. Mokgweetsi Masisi, “the dawn of a new era for the diamond industry in Botswana, as we begin this journey with HB Antwerp”.

The official launch of diamond cutting and polishing company, HB Botswana, a local subsidiary of the Antwerp (Belgium) outfit at the Diamond Technology Park was no doubt, a glittering affair in both speech and ambience!

Masisi announced that the Government of Botswana and HB Antwerp have agreed to a strategic partnership whereby the Government of Botswana will invest in HB by acquiring a 24 percent equity stake in HB Antwerp.

In addition, the Government of Botswana, through its rough diamond trading company, Okavango Diamond Company (ODC), will supply rough diamonds to HB Botswana, which is HB Antwerp’s local subsidiary, for a period of five (5) years, with all the value addition to take place in Botswana.

The key commercial terms of the deal have been agreed and the deal will be signed in the coming weeks. Considering that Botswana is currently locked in negotiations with De Beers for a diamond sales agreement, this development is huge!

The local diamond industry currently boasts 50 licensed Diamond Cutting and Polishing Companies, 48 of which are operating. About 50 percent of the companies were licensed during the 2021-2022 period and they are at different stages of operations.

The local industry was supplied with US$1.1billion worth of rough diamonds in 2022 which is a 33 percent increase from the 2021 supply of UD$728million.

Increasingly, the new factories are adopting and employing new technologies and innovative solutions which bring about improvements in productivity and efficiencies hence rendering increased competitiveness of the local cutting and polishing industry.

With the increase in licensed companies, has also translated to an increase in employment with 4001 employees registered as at 15th January 2023, compared to 2332 employees registered during the same period in 2022.

HB Botswana envisions scaling up to 489 employees by 2026 from the initial 30 employees it currently has, but more importantly, the mother company in Belgium has brought a suite of its innovative and proprietary technologies to the local subsidiary.

These technologies will allow Botswana as the country of origin (provenance) to have unprecedented insight and influence into every step of its natural resources’ journey.

Masisi admits that the dream of HB Antwerp founders, aligns with Botswana’s vision for its mineral infrastructure and is confident that in HB Antwerp the country has forged a partnership based on trust, fairness, and honesty, which has the potential to be a “game-changer”.

In the midst of all the jubilation, Botswana Guardian challenges both Government of Botswana and HB Antwerp to open up their books to the public in the interest of the ‘transparency’ that they espouse in their partnership.

As much as we are entitled to invest wherever we deem profitable with our diamonds, let us keep in mind that these diamonds are essentially the bedrock of our economy. Let us not be seen to be biting more than we can chew!

It would be tragic if after entrusting HB Botswana – a relatively unknown outfit in the lucrative world diamond industry - with so much responsibility, the company collapses under our watch, or worse still, the Company founders – God forbid – are declared insolvent!