Ndaba Gaolathe’s Bold Vision: Can Pension Funds Build Botswana’s Future?

Honourable Ndaba Gaolathe challenges Botswana to embrace a new development model that harnesses domestic pension funds as a cornerstone of infrastructure transformation in a passionate, reflective, and deeply strategic address. 

Delivered on April 10, 2025, during a national dialogue convened by Absa Bank Botswana, the speech resonated as a call to action for leaders in finance, government, and civil society alike.

Gaolathe’s message is clear: Botswana must shift from a passive capital exporter to an active builder of national prosperity—leveraging the dreams of its pensioners to finance the future they deserve.

A Call to Patriotism, Purpose, and Possibility

Gaolathe’s speech opens personally, recognizing familiar faces in the room—mentors, colleagues, and friends—who share his deep love for Botswana. He weaves a powerful narrative that blends the intellectual with the emotional, urging listeners to see themselves not as financial technocrats but as architects of national destiny.

“We must let go of certainty. Its opposite is not uncertainty—it is openness, curiosity, and a willingness to embrace paradox.”

This mindset, he argues, is essential for confronting the complexities of economic development in a post-aid Africa.

Botswana’s Pension Funds: From Savings to Strategy

Gaolathe contends that Botswana’s pension funds are more than monetary reserves. They are the stored dreams of the nation’s workers—teachers, engineers, and public servants—who have labored with quiet dignity. When strategically deployed, these funds can become engines of transformation.

“The pension funds we have are the same thing as a transformed nation. They are isomorphic—they are one and the same.”

This elegant metaphor, drawn from advanced mathematics, serves a bold policy premise: Botswana’s development potential is not an abstraction—it already exists in the form of its financial capital.

Global Precedents: Canada, Australia, Netherlands

To reinforce the feasibility of this approach, Gaolathe references successful international models:

• Canada’s Pension Plan Investment Board (CPPIB) focused early investments on domestic energy, roads, and ports before becoming a global investor. Today, it manages over 600 billion CAD.
• Australia’s superannuation funds have been used to build social housing, hospitals, and renewable energy infrastructure.
• The Netherlands’ pension model maintains a dual mandate: strong returns and economic transformation, particularly in clean transport and digital infrastructure.

Each example demonstrates that aligning pension capital with national development priorities is not a gamble—it’s good economics.

Policy as Invitation, Not Restriction

A new domestic investment mandate for Botswana’s pension funds has raised concern in some circles, but Gaolathe reframes it as a strategic opportunity.

“This policy is not a limitation—it is an invitation. An invitation to harness our own capital, invest in our own destiny, and chart a future built on strategic foresight.”

He stresses that success lies in transparent project pipelines, technical rigor, and public-private partnerships that de-risk investments.

Building the Best Managed Country in Africa

Gaolathe envisions a Botswana with:

• High-speed rail along the North–South Economic Corridor
• Large-scale logistics hubs
• Affordable urban housing and student accommodation
• Expanding renewable energy infrastructure
• Special economic zones for youth innovation and jobs
• Robust digital infrastructure for financial inclusion and e-governance

“We are not sacrificing returns. We are redefining returns—true value is not merely numeric. It is social. It is economic. It is intergenerational.”

An African Solution, Rooted in Authenticity

Quoting Kwame Nkrumah, Gaolathe reminds the audience that Botswana’s future will not be shaped by external donors, but by its own “finesse, creativity, and belief in a shared destiny.”

He concludes with a poetic and patriotic charge:

“Let us be true—to our poems and sunsets, to our zebras and lions, to the way we smile, walk, and dance. Let us be true to who we are.”

In this vision, pension funds become more than investment vehicles—they become vessels of identity, unity, and nationhood.