Botswana

Xinhua

Botswana’s unemployment figures are swelling in spite of government’s efforts to solve the problem, the Country Statistician-General, Burton Mguni, said.

“Unemployment rate went up by 1.3 percentage points, from 23.2 per cent in quarter one of 2020, to 24.5 per cent in quarter four 2020,” said Mguni.

Mguni also noted that the youth unemployment rate went up by 1.9 percentage points over the period, from 30.5 to 32.4 per cent.

Botswana’s Minister of Finance and Economic Development, Thapelo Matsheka, said in the country’s budget speech delivered Monday that unemployment was a major challenge facing the country, especially among young people.

Meanwhile, the government is still developing a National Employment Policy mooted in 2020 to deal with unemployment, which is expected to be finalised in the first half of 2021, Matsheka said.

“The draft policy has been undergoing intense interrogation within my ministry to assess its adequacy in promoting productive, gainful and decent employment for Batswana based on its five strategic focus areas,” added Matsheka.