Botswana · Citizenship by investment
Impact Citizenship / Impact Investment Programme
This is not law yet. President Duma Boko signed an exclusive MoU with Arton Capital at UNGA on 26 September 2025. The enabling Citizenship (Amendment) Bill No. 30 of 2025 was tabled on 16 December 2025 and passed second reading on 17 December 2025, then went to committee stage. No assent could be verified as of 15 July 2026, and the index of the 27 Acts of 2025 contains no Citizenship (Amendment) Act. Critically, the widely quoted USD 75,000-90,000 price has no government source. When tabling the Bill, the Minister said he was not in a position to state the amount.
This is the live speculative story in African citizenship, and it is being sold months or years ahead of the law. The initiative is real. There is a presidential MoU and a Bill that has passed second reading. But the price, the timeline and the launch date circulating in the market are all fabrications, and the restrictions the government has confirmed are severe.
Qualifying routes
The USD 75,000-90,000 range circulates through Arton's own non-government portal. The Minister told Parliament the amount would be determined by stakeholders and that he could not state it.
The facts
- Minimum investment
- $75k
- Total landed cost
- Unknown. No official price exists. Any figure you are quoted is an agency's invention.
- Route type
- Citizenship by investment
- Physical presence
- Not specified. No published criteria exist.
- Family
- Not specified. No published criteria
- Permanent residency
- Not applicable. This is proposed as a direct citizenship route.
- Citizenship
- This would be the citizenship route if enacted.
- Language test
- Not specified for this route. Ordinary naturalisation requires Setswana or a tribal language.
- Dual citizenship
- Not permitted. You would have to renounce.
- It is not law. The Bill sat in committee stage as of July 2026 with no verified assent. Anyone taking your money for Botswana CBI today is selling a Bill, not a programme.
- The USD 75,000-90,000 price has no government source. It originates from Arton's own registration portal on a non-government domain. The Minister explicitly told Parliament he could not state the amount.
- Arton's widely reported figure of over 1,000 investors in the first month refers to registrations of interest on a marketing portal, not applications. There is no application process to apply to.
- The restrictions the government has confirmed are severe. CBI citizens could not vote, hold public office, access free government education, apply for government funding, receive state or tribal land, or serve in the disciplined forces. Citizenship would also be withdrawable for breach. This would be a second-class citizenship by design.
- The passport is weak: 81 destinations at rank 59. Even if it launches at USD 75k, you would be buying restricted citizenship in a country whose economy contracted two years running.
- Political risk is on the record. The Maun East MP warned in Parliament that the Bill exposed the country to financial terrorism, corruption, and eventually grey listing. Botswana only exited the FATF grey list in 2021.
- Even the 2024 dual citizenship reform does not clearly protect a CBI citizen. See the naturalised-citizen trap in the dual citizenship entry.