A potential investment pipeline worth up to P6.8 billion in the Selebi-Phikwe region could get a financing boost following a new partnership between First National Bank Botswana (FNBB) and SPEDU.
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, which is wholly owned by the Government of Botswana, coordinates economic diversification and regeneration across 52 settlements in the region. The organisation was established following the closure of the BCL copper-nickel mine in 2016.
SPEDU has told Parliament that its current industrial investment pipeline is valued between P5.9 billion and P6.8 billion. The new partnership will explore ways of addressing one of the region’s persistent challenges: access to catalytic and commercially viable finance.
The partnership also supports Government’s ambition of building a private sector-led economy under the Botswana Economic Transformation Programme (BETP), which targets P514 billion in cumulative private investment by 2036 across 186 investment-ready projects.
Valentine Harward, Commercial Executive Acting at FNBB, said the partnership brings together the respective strengths of government and commercial finance.
“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 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.”
SPEDU Caretaker Chief Executive Officer, Ronnie Phuthego, said financing remained critical to turning the region’s investment opportunities into operating businesses.
“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.”
The two organisations will explore financing for citizen-owned enterprises, including working capital and turnaround finance for previously closed manufacturing businesses. They will also consider anchor banking and value-chain financing around SPEDU-supported projects.
The agreement marks the beginning of the process, with both parties expected to identify specific projects, financing requirements and potential investment structures.
