Another African Country Has Enacted Legislation To Promote The Industrialization Of Medical Marijuana

Botswana is one of the countries in Africa with faster economic development and better economic conditions. With the diamond industry, cattle breeding industry, and emerging manufacturing industry as its pillar industries, Botswana's GDP will be US$19.071 billion, and its per capita GDP will be US$8,082 in 2022. The economic growth rate is 5.8%.

 

Botswana is launching a "green revolution" on the African continent. On April 2, 2025, President Mokgweetsi Boko presided over a special meeting of the East and Southern African Drug Commission and officially announced that the country had adopted the "Policy on the Legal Use of Marijuana". This bill, which has been brewing for nearly half a year, allows the cultivation of marijuana for industrial and medical purposes under strict supervision, marking a key step towards industrial diversification in this African country famous for diamonds.

 

Country	Legalization Status	Main Uses	Current Status
Morocco	Legal cultivation policy approved	Medical, Industrial	Emerging market, implementation starting in 2025
South Africa	Legal for household cultivation and personal use	Medical, Recreational (Restricted)	Effective since 2018, no unified national industry regulations
Zimbabwe	Medical cannabis legalized	Mainly for medical export	Large-scale medical cultivation licensing system in place
Lesotho	Medical cannabis legalized	Mainly for medical export	First African country to legalize cultivation
Malawi	Legal for industrial and medical use	Traditional medicine, fiber production	Legal framework being established, main production in the north

(Legalization Status of Cannabis in African Countries)

 

According to the implementation rules of the bill, all marijuana cultivation must be equipped with an electronic tracking system, which can be traced from the seed to the export of finished products. The newly established "Marijuana Regulatory Bureau" will issue licenses uniformly, and applicants must pass six review procedures, such as environmental assessment and capital review. Acting Agriculture Minister Dikoloti revealed in a parliamentary defense that only 20 cultivation licenses were available during the pilot phase, 15 of which have been obtained by pharmaceutical companies with international certification qualifications.

 

"This is not an adventure, but a carefully calculated industrial transformation." President Boko emphasized in his State of the Nation Address that the global medical marijuana market is expanding at an annual rate of 34%, and Botswana plans to build Africa's largest medical marijuana processing center by 2028. According to forecasts by government think tanks, the export of CBD (cannabidiol) extracts alone can generate $280 million in foreign exchange each year, equivalent to 7.3% of the country's diamond exports in 2022.

 

However, this "green gold rush" has also caused controversy. Opposition lawmakers pointed out that the 500,000 Pula (about $37,000) deposit required for a single cultivation license completely blocks small and medium-sized farmers from the door. Even more difficult is the regulation of THC content - according to current standards, each batch of products must control the hallucinogenic ingredient tetrahydrocannabinol below 0.3%, and the cost of each testing equipment is as high as 1.2 million US dollars. Currently, only three laboratories in the country have the qualification to test.

 

It is worth noting that China is experiencing an industrial transformation. During the 2024 China- Africa Cooperation Forum, Botswana signed a cooperation agreement with Xinping County, Yunnan Province, and China will provide seed optimization technology and deep processing equipment. This African country with a per capita GDP of more than 8,000 US dollars is trying to replicate China's experience in "poverty alleviation". It plans to drive 120,000 rural people to employment through the cannabis industry chain within 5 years.

 

The medical community remains cautiously optimistic about this. Molebogi, chief pharmacist of Gaborone General Hospital, reminded: "Medical marijuana is indeed effective for epilepsy and cancer pain, but an electronic prescription system must be established to prevent abuse." The Ministry of Health is currently building a patient database, and all medications must undergo a three-level review. As the first phase of the 200-hectare plantation is about to start construction in the Okavango Delta, the global market is watching to see whether this well-off African country can transform the controversial plant into a driving force for development.