Johannesburg - State-owned companies in Botswana were set to follow the government into the bond market after this year's successful debut sovereign bond issues, finance minister Baledzi Gaolathe said last week.
The country issued its first sovereign bonds this year in an effort to establish a benchmark for future borrowing.
"When we have got our bond yield curves sorted out, we expect some corporates to , some of the parastatals, for instance," Gaolathe said on the margins of a finance conference in Johannesburg.
"The government has reduced direct lending to them, so they will have to stand more on their own," he said.
Air Botswana and Botswana Telecommunications, both set for privatisation, were among the most likely state companies to issue bonds, he said, along with the Botswana Development Corporation and Botswana Housing Corporation. He gave no timeline.
Botswana is one of the few countries in sub-Saharan Africa to have received ratings from the major credit rating agencies. It issued its first government bond in March as part of a series of bonds maturing in two, five and 12 years' time.
Gaolathe said nearly 2 billion pula (R3 billion) of bonds had been sold, and the government hoped to sell up to 2.5 billion pula as the issues had been oversubscribed.
"Next year and beyond we want to go international," he said, referring to plans to issue bonds denominated in foreign currency.
The landlocked country has vast reserves of gem-quality diamonds, which have transformed one of the world's poorest countries into one of Africa's richest.
But Gaolathe said the weakening dollar - the currency of the diamond trade - was adversely affecting government finances by effectively reducing the value of gem exports.
De Beers, in which Botswana holds an effective 15 percent stake, said last week it would have to cut jobs to counter the rise of the rand against the dollar.
"We are looking at ways to balance the budget, at innovative ways of raising revenues and cutting costs," Gaolathe said.
He said Botswana was counting on 5.5 percent annual economic growth over the next six years to fulfil an ambitious 20-year programme, set in 1996, to transform the economy.