The newly signed agreement paves the way for a joint financing and de-risking framework aligned to the Botswana Economic Transformation Programme (BETP), Citizen Economic Empowerment, and
Sustainable Finance. First National Bank Botswana (FNBB), through its Citizen Economic Empowerment Programme function in the Commercial Segment, has signed an agreement with SPEDU – a first formal step toward a structured partnership intended to unlock private sector investment across the SPEDU region.
The agreement establishes the confidential information-sharing basis on which the two parties will jointly scope co-financing, de-risking, and enterprise-development structures to support SPEDU’s industrial, agribusiness, tourism, and manufacturing investment pipeline. SPEDU, a company wholly owned by the Government of Botswana under the Ministry of Trade and Entrepreneurship, is mandated to facilitate and coordinate economic diversification and regeneration in the 52 settlements that make up the SPEDU region – established in the aftermath of the 2016 closure of the BCL copper-nickel mine.
SPEDU leadership has told Parliament it is currently custodian of an industrial investment pipeline valued at between BWP 5.9 billion and BWP 6.8 billion, much of which requires the kind of catalytic and blended finance that a commercial bank, working alongside government structures, is positioned to help mobilise.
The partnership is explicitly designed to support Government’s drive toward a private sector-led economy by leveraging, rather than duplicating, existing government structures including SPEDU’s investment facilitation mandate, its incentive regime, and the Botswana One-Stop Service Centre. This positions FNBB as a financing partner working inside the government’s own delivery architecture, in direct support of the Botswana Economic Transformation Programme (BETP), which is targeting cumulative private investment of BWP 514 billion by 2036 across 186 investment-ready projects, of which 60% are private sector-led. Commenting on the partnership:
“This partnership reflects how we believe transformation finance should work in Botswana, government provides the mandate, the land, and the incentive architecture; we bring structured capital, credit expertise, and balance sheet. Neither works at scale without the other. Our Commercial Segment exists to build exactly this kind of anchor relationship, and Selebi Phikwe is a proving ground for what private sector-led diversification, backed by disciplined banking, can look like outside Gaborone.”
Valentine Harward, Commercial Executive Acting, First National Bank Botswana “SPEDU is sitting on a substantial investment pipeline, and our constraint has never been project ideas it has been catalytic, bankable finance to move projects from concept to construction. A banking partner of FNBB’s scale, willing to work inside our mandate rather than around it, changes what is possible for the 52 settlements we serve. This is precisely the kind of blended, structured support that lets us convert land, incentives, and investor interest into completed, job- creating enterprises.
Meanwhile, Ronnie Phuthego, Caretaker Chief Executive Officer, SPEDU said the partnership intends to, ” Advancing CEEP, Sustainability and Manufacturing within the Botswana Economic Transformation Plan: The partnership will channel FNBB’s Financial Solutions to Citizen Economic Empowerment Programme (CEEP) enterprises in the SPEDU region, directly supporting BETP’s private sector-led transformation targets and the programme’s Financial Services and Digitalisation, Energy, and Manufacturing priority sectors.
Co-developing a blended finance and de-risking framework: FNBB and SPEDU will jointly scope structures, combining commercial debt and asset-based finance to catalyse the industrial, tourism and agribusiness pipeline SPEDU has identified, addressing the absence of catalytic financing that SPEDU itself has cited as a constraint to date.
Reviving and scaling existing enterprises: The agreement supports SPEDU’s work, alongside the Citizen Entrepreneurial Development Agency and Local Enterprise Authority, to resuscitate previously closed manufacturing enterprises in the region, with FNBB exploring its role in providing working capital and turnaround finance.
Anchor and Value Chain Banking around SPEDU-facilitated projects: FNBB will explore ecosystem and anchor banking structures that extend financial solutions down SPEDU’s agribusiness, manufacturing, and tourism value chains, converting facilitated land, incentives, and investor leads into bankable, completed projects.
Strengthening the private sector-led delivery model under BETP: By working through SPEDU’s existing investment-promotion mandate rather than establishing parallel structures, the partnership is designed as a replicable model for how commercial banks can support regional economic development agencies elsewhere in Botswana. The agreement marks the formal starting point of the engagement. Both parties will now scope specific financing needs, co-investment structures, and project pipelines.
