Botswana

Economy & income

Currency

• Botswana Pula (BWP, symbol P)
• ~13.6-13.8 per USD (Jul 2026; 2025 avg ~13.75)

GDP per capita

• ~$7,660 nominal (2025, IMF WEO)
• ~$19,600 PPP (2025, World Economics; World Bank ~$18,000-20,500, 2024)

Average salary

• ~$430 net/mo (est.)
• gross ~P7,500/mo (~$545, Lamna/wage.is 2025)

Median salary

• n/a official
• proxy: ~half of employees earn ≤P10,000/mo (~$725) — Lamna 2025
• formal median est. lower

Minimum wage

• P9.06/hour (Jan 2025, sectoral)
• full-time ~P1,570-1,880/mo (~$115-140/mo)

Cost of living

• Low-Medium globally (Numbeo index ~39.5, 2025, ranked ~65th) but among Africa's highest
• Numbeo sample moderately thin

Digital landscape

Population

2.54 million (Jan 2025)

Internet users

81.4% (~2.07 million users)

Social media users

51.1% (~1.30 million identities)

Mobile connections

4.21 million connections = 166% of pop

Devices

mobile ~44.6% / desktop ~54.6% / tablet ~0.8% (StatCounter, Jun 2026) — StatCounter pageviews skew desktop despite 166% mobile penetration

Ad spend

• n/a specific total
• DataReportal notes small digital ad market
• Southern-Africa regional spend low

Top social platforms

Facebook ~1.30M reach, #1

LinkedIn ~460K

Messenger ~279K

Instagram ~215K

X/Twitter ~90.5K

• TikTok — rising fast, +150% YoY; huge youth usage

Messengers

• WhatsApp (dominant)
• Facebook Messenger (~279K)
• Telegram (minor)

Payments & behaviour

Payment methods

• Mobile money (~70% of online txns by 2025) — Orange Money (leader), MyZaka (Mascom)
• Cards Visa/Mastercard (~30% of online txns) via DPO Pay gateway
• Bank EFT / instant payments (Bank of Botswana rails)
• Cash / COD (informal & offline retail)

E-wallets

• Orange Money
• MyZaka
• Smega
• Poso-Money

Cash on delivery

• Cash-on-delivery & cash still common for informal and social-commerce sales
• wallets preferred online

E-commerce

• Low but growing
• small formal e-commerce market, heavy social commerce via Facebook/WhatsApp

Notes

• Mobile-money wallets bundle integrated micro-loan facilities (<P2,000)
• stores pair DPO Pay (cards) with Orange Money / MyZaka Pay for cardless checkout

Audience & culture

Languages

• Setswana (national, ~78% first language)
• English (official; business, media, ads)
• Kalanga/Sekalanga (~11%)
• Kgalagadi, Herero, others (minor)

Religion

• Christianity 86.5% (2022 census)
• no religion 7.1%
• Badimo/traditional 4.6%
• other (Islam, Hindu, Baha'i) ~small

Median age

23.4 years (DataReportal, Jan 2025)

Key seasons

• Festive/Christmas (Dec 25-26) — peak spend
• Independence & Botswana Day (Sep 30-Oct 1)
• Easter/Good Friday (Mar-Apr)
• Back-to-school (Jan)
• Month-end paydays (spending spikes)

Cultural notes

• Conservative Christian, strong word-of-mouth
• Facebook + TikTok dominate
• English Premier League football fandom huge (drives betting)
• diamond-linked economy shapes sentiment

Where to find creators

• TikTok
• Facebook
• Instagram
• YouTube

Media landscape

Creators & public figures

Top creators

Celebrities

Letsile Tebogo ~207K Instagram

Sprinter — 200m Olympic champion (Paris 2024), first Botswana Olympic gold; national hero

R

Ross Branch n/a exact; global motorsport following

Motorcycle rally racer — World Rally-Raid (W2RC) champion, multiple Dakar stage wins

Duma Boko n/a exact

President of Botswana (since Nov 2024), lawyer/Harvard LLM; ended BDP's ~58-yr rule

Mpule Kwelagobe n/a exact

Miss Universe 1999, businesswoman & philanthropist

Amantle Montsho n/a exact

Sprinter — 2011 World 400m champion, Olympic finalist

Isaac Makwala n/a exact

Sprinter — 200m/400m Commonwealth & continental medallist

Affiliate & traffic

Hot verticals

• Sports betting / iGaming (football-driven)
• Mobile VAS & content subscriptions
• Finance / micro-loans
• E-commerce & dropshipping (social commerce)
• Nutra / health & beauty
• Sweepstakes

Active networks

• 1xBet Partners
• Betwinner Partners
• Linebet
• Super Partners Africa (Betway)
• Mostbet Partners
• Adsterra
• PropellerAds

Payouts

• Tier-3 lower payouts: betting CPA ~$5-25/FTD, RevShare ~20-40%
• nutra/COD ~$3-10
• CPL small — offset by cheap CPMs

Competition

• Low-to-moderate
• small 2.5M population — often bundled into South Africa / SADC regional campaigns

Seasonality

• Football calendar (EPL, AFCON, World Cup) drives betting
• festive Dec peak
• month-end paydays lift conversions

Traffic sources

• Facebook
• TikTok
• Google / UAC
• Push notifications
• WhatsApp
• In-app

Good to know

Capital

Gaborone

Major cities

• Gaborone
• Francistown
• Molepolole
• Maun
• Serowe
• Selebi-Phikwe
• Kanye
• Mahalapye

Time zones

Single zone — Central Africa Time (CAT), UTC+2, no DST

Android vs iOS

84% 16%

Android 84% iOS 16%

Phone brands

• Samsung (leader)
• Tecno/Itel/Infinix (Transsion group)
• Huawei
• Xiaomi
• Apple

Top e-commerce

• Facebook Marketplace / WhatsApp (dominant social commerce)
• Takealot (South Africa, cross-border)
• Shein / AliExpress (imports)
• Choppies / Sefalana (retail, some online)
• Local classifieds & IG shops

Peak activity

Evenings ~7-10pm CAT and lunch hour; spikes at month-end (salaries paid end of month)

Creative taboos

• HIV/AIDS (~20% adult prevalence — one of world's highest; handle health creatives sensitively)
• politics (recent historic power change)
• San/Basarwa land rights & tribal sensitivities
• conservative on nudity/LGBT
• Christian majority

Also worth knowing

• Diamond-dependent economy (Debswana/De Beers) — 2024-25 diamond slump strained GDP & the Pula, denting consumer spend
• salaries paid month-end so conversions cluster then
• English is widely used in ads/media so English creatives work well alongside Setswana