The Botswana Investment and Trade Centre (BITC) hosted a discussion this week between a visiting Estonian delegation and local representatives, to discuss areas of collaboration in digitalisation, innovation, trade, and investment.

The BITC said in a statement that this was consistent with the mutual pledges previously made by Botswana and Estonia's governments.

The discussion, held on 6 March, featured presentations by speakers from various institutions and major stakeholders in the financial and business services sectors, as well as high-level presentations by Estonian ICT companies.

Anthony Sefako, COO, BITC, spoke to the Estonian delegates about the ease of doing business in Botswana, assuring them the country was a stable economy, with sound fiscal policies and investment incentives, and an enabling environment for foreign direct investment.

Ruth Baitshepi, coordinator of digitalisation and innovation hub at the Bank of Botswana, provided input on Botswana’s fintech sector.

According to the issues press release: "She informed the delegates of a recent study conducted by the Central Bank on the fintech sector whose key findings highlighted investment opportunities in the nascent fintech sector and encouraged the visiting delegation to consider harnessing such opportunities."

Thapelo Tsheole, CEO, Botswana Stock Exchange, issued an invitation to the visiting delegation and private sector members to consider listing their companies with the exchange. He said this would give them the opportunity to raise funding for their investments and take advantage of enhanced levels of capital recently made available from local pension funds.

Representing Estonian enterprises, Katrin Winter, head of Africa-Estonian Centre for International Development, expressed a strong desire to collaborate with Botswana to accelerate the digital development of e-solutions and establish a data-driven business environment, as Botswana strives to become a knowledge-driven economy.

The presentations from the three visiting Estonian ICT companies, Admiral, Nortal, and Digital Nation, similarly outlined a desire to collaborate with the Botswana government. They also expressed ambition to form solid partnerships with local companies to deliver digitalisation and fintech solutions services.

In concluding the Estonia delegation's presentations, Daniel Erik Schaer, Ambassador-at-Large for Africa, for Estonia’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs, emphasised the importance of both countries collaborating and co-creating to achieve end-to-end digitisation and broader ICT solutions.