Gaborone - Botswana is betting on industrial hemp to revitalize and diverisfy its economy, the newly elected President Duma Boko announced during his maiden state of the nation address last week.

Boko said the plan was to move away from a reliance on diamonds as the single commodity for foreign income. Botswana earns about 80% of its foreign exchange from diamond sales, but the revenue from the commodity has plunged more than 60% in recent years, he said.

Professor Benni DeBeer, a South African cannabis researcher, has been appointed to oversee Botswana’s hemp production. He told a local radio station that he was committed to generating over 100,000 jobs.

The southern Africa nation joins a growing list of African countries including South Africa, Uganda, Lesotho, Zimbabwe, and Zambia, which have legalized the commercial use and export of cannabis. The Kingdom of Eswatini has also been considering legalizing cannabis for medicinal and research purposes. Africa’s medicinal cannabis market was estimated to be worth $7.1 billion by 2023.