An opportunity is not a project. A project is an opportunity that has been tested, structured, sequenced, costed and given a route to implementation. Turning one into the other is what this page is about.
Three things fail Botswana projects repeatedly, and none of them is the underlying idea:
- The approvals were sequenced wrong. Section 5(1) of the Environmental Assessment Act 2011 stops any licensing authority issuing a licence for a prescribed activity until environmental authorisation is in place. A project that treats environmental work as a parallel task discovers it is a gate.
- The land was assumed. Much land is tribal land administered by a Land Board, with its own process and timeline. It is a counterparty, not a formality.
- The model was built before the regulation was priced. Royalties, the Government working interest, tax treatment inside or outside a special economic zone, empowerment obligations on a public contract. Each changes the numbers, and a funder in Botswana will notice if they are missing.
Insika structures projects through a clear milestone-based approach so those three failures do not happen.
The eight stages
The sequence below is the one we run. Each stage produces something the next stage needs, and each has a decision point where stopping is a legitimate outcome.
- Project discovery
Understanding the opportunity, the sector, the location and what you are actually trying to achieve. The output is a clear statement of the project and the questions that decide whether it is viable.
- Feasibility
Commercial, regulatory and technical considerations assessed together, because in a regulated sector they determine one another. This is where a project should be stopped if it is going to be stopped.
- Project structure
Scope, responsibilities, ownership structure and milestones. Ownership is a live design question in Botswana, where reserved trade categories, the 51 percent joint venture route and the 100 percent citizen condition on some funding each pull in different directions.
- Specialist appointment
Bringing in the appropriate technical specialists, registered where registration is required, such as engineers certified by the Engineers Registration Board of Botswana.
- Documentation
Preparing what the applications, the funders and the counterparties actually require, rather than a general project document that satisfies none of them.
- Regulatory process
Coordinating submissions and engagement in the right order, with the environmental authorisation ahead of the sector licence as section 5(1) requires.
- Monitoring
Tracking milestones, outstanding requirements and the things waiting on someone else. Most delay is not caused by a decision going badly, it is caused by nobody noticing a step stalled.
- Implementation
Moving the project into execution, with the conditions attached to approvals turned into operating requirements.
Sequencing: what has to happen before what
Order is the part clients most often get wrong, and it is the cheapest thing to fix because it costs nothing but attention.
- Environmental authorisation precedes the sector licence. Not alongside. Section 5(1) is explicit, and the process includes a public review of not less than 21 days that cannot be compressed. See environmental compliance.
- Land runs in parallel with design, not after it. A Land Board process started once the design is complete adds its full duration to the programme instead of overlapping with it.
- Ownership structure precedes funding applications. Because which institutions you can approach depends on it. CEDA requires 100 percent citizen ownership; a reserved trade category requires 51 percent; public procurement rewards local participation. See funding and investment.
- A bankable feasibility study precedes a mining licence application, so scope the study to that standard at the outset rather than upgrading a lesser one later. See mining.
- Grid connection and wheeling strategy precede a generation application, because they form part of it. See energy and green economy.
What a stage gate actually decides
Milestone-based development only works if a milestone can fail. Otherwise it is a schedule with optimistic labels.
At each gate the honest questions are:
- Has anything changed the viability? A tariff, a regulation, a commodity price, an input cost.
- Is the next stage funded? Development spend runs ahead of project finance, and running out of development capital mid-approval is a common and avoidable failure.
- What have we learned that we did not assume? The purpose of a stage is to convert assumptions into facts. If it has not, it has not finished.
- Is stopping the right answer? A project stopped at feasibility for a good reason has saved money. A project carried to application stage on hope has spent it.
We would rather tell a client at stage two that the project does not work than take fees through to stage six on a project that was never going to reach implementation.
Where project development gets applied
The method is sector-neutral, but the constraints differ by sector, and that is where the specific expertise sits.
- Mining. The licence ladder, the bankable feasibility requirement, surface rights and the Government working interest under section 40.
- Energy. Two approvals rather than one, grid connection, wheeling, and the 100 kW rooftop licensing line.
- Petroleum. Seven licensable activities, and the storage condition now attached to import licences. See petroleum.
- Manufacturing and industry. Industrial licensing, and whether the investment qualifies for the special economic zone regime. See manufacturing and industry.
- Infrastructure. Public procurement, empowerment obligations and registered professional sign-off. See infrastructure and engineering.
- Trade and logistics. Classification, origin, corridors and landed cost. See import and export.
What Insika is, and what it is not
Worth being direct, because project development is a term used loosely.
Insika is a consulting and project development firm. We assess, structure, coordinate, document and manage. We appoint and manage the specialists a project needs, and we run the regulatory engagement.
Insika is not a law firm, an environmental assessment practitioner, a firm of registered engineers, a contractor or a lender. Where a project needs those, we appoint appropriately qualified professionals and manage them as part of the programme. Professional sign-off comes from the registered professional who gives it.
Insika does not decide applications. Regulators and Ministers do, independently. What we control is whether what reaches them is complete, correctly sequenced and credible.
Official sources
This guide is based on the current rules published by the relevant Botswana authorities. Always confirm the latest fees and requirements with the office that applies to you.