Botswana President Duma Boko has declared a public health emergency and set up a 5 billion pula response plan as a prolonged downturn in diamond sales has caused funds for medical supplies to dry up.
The military is overseeing an emergency distribution drive after the national medical supply chain failed, Boko said in a televised address Monday.
Botswana Development Corporation, the state-owned investment company, will inject an initial 100 million pula as the president called for further assistance from pension and insurance funds as well as other financiers.
“Today I addressed the nation on the urgent failure of our medical supply chain and declared a State of Public Health Emergency. We are unapologetic in fixing this system once and for all. We have launched the P5 billion Health First Botswana Partnership Fund, starting with P100 million from BDC, to secure transparent, sustainable, and reliable access to medicines for every Motswana,” President Boko said.
“Immediate emergency supplies worth P250 million are being secured, while long-term reforms will eliminate inflated costs, inefficiencies, and middlemen. We will not rest until every citizen has uninterrupted access to essential healthcare.”
The southern African country’s health ministry earlier this month warned that it urgently needed supplies as it postponed all non-urgent surgery.
Botswana is the world’s largest producer of diamonds by value, with the stones contributing about a third of budget revenues and the bulk of foreign currency receipts.
“It is important to note that this procurement shall be led and overseen by the Botswana Defence Force as it’s highly price sensitive given our limited coffers,
” he said. This is “in line with fair and ethical pricing.”
A health-care task force examining procurement pointed to unjustified medical price increases and too many middlemen, Boko said. An estimate from the government’s health procurement agency for an annual supply of drugs came in at more than 705 million pula. Without the unnecessary price escalations, the task force found these could be bought for less than 80 million pula, he said.
