Botswana Prescribed rate of interest
Botswana Prescribed rate of interest is 10 percent, in force since 1 Jan 1978. Last checked against the official source on 10 Aug 2026.
Botswana's statutory default interest: 10% per annum, fixed by the Prescribed Rate of Interest Order made under the Prescribed Rate of Interest Act (Cap 11:05), applying to debts where no rate was agreed and to judgment debts.
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| Current value | 10 percent |
|---|---|
| In force from | 1978-01-01 |
| Official source | Prescribed Rate of Interest Act (Cap 11:05, Act 20 of 1978; subsidiary legislation S.I. 117 of 1978), long title: 'An Act to provide for the calculation of interest on a debt, in certain circumstances, at a prescribed rate, for the payment of interest on certain judgment debts and for matters connected therewith' — s 3 'Interest on a debt to be calculated at prescribed rate', s 4 'Interest on judgment debt'; the rate is fixed by the Prescribed Rate of Interest Order made under the Act |
| Last verified | 2026-08-10 |
| Verification | secondary — Corroborated, but the primary instrument was NOT read (usually the publishing host blocks automated access). The Prescribed Rate of Interest Order's own text could not be read from a public primary source (Botswana's e-laws portal is offline and the consolidated statutes are paywalled). The Act and its structure are confirmed from the consolidated-statutes index; the 10% figure and the 1978 provenance are taken from Botswana High Court practice and practitioner sources, not read from the Order. |
| Provenance | source fingerprint |
What this value means
Botswana's prescribed rate is a flat 10% per annum and is not linked to the Bank of Botswana policy rate — it does not move with monetary policy. It applies where a debt bears interest but no rate was agreed and none is fixed by another law or trade custom (s 3), and to judgment debts (s 4). In practice a High Court writ of summons claims 'payment of the outstanding amount, interest at the agreed rate or at 10% per annum and legal costs'. SCOPE: one rate for civil and commercial debts alike; Botswana has no separate late-payment regime for commercial transactions and no EU-style directive margin. A contractual rate displaces the prescribed rate entirely. Interest on costs runs only if it was claimed in the originating process — the Botswana High Court has refused a fresh claim for 10% interest on taxed costs raised for the first time at the garnishee stage. RETRIEVAL TRAP: Botswana publishes no free authoritative text of this Order. The state portal elaws.gov.bw has been unreachable, and the consolidated statutes at botswanalaws.com place the Act's sections and the Prescribed Rate of Interest Order behind a subscription wall, so the operative wording of the Order cannot be quoted from a public source; the figure is the rate applied in Botswana court practice.
Get it programmatically
curl https://afriref.dev/v1/bw/statutory-interest
# $0.005 per call — x402 on Base (USDC). No key, no signup.
# History: curl https://afriref.dev/v1/bw/statutory-interest/history?from=2020-01-01
# Provenance: curl https://afriref.dev/provenance/bw/statutory-interestOther Botswana series: Monetary Policy Rate (MoPR) · VAT standard rate · VAT registration threshold · Minimum wage (general hourly rate, scheduled trades) · Public holidays · CPI inflation (year-on-year) · Corporate income tax rate · Withholding tax rates · Personal income tax brackets (resident individuals) · Statutory social-insurance contributions
The same figure elsewhere: Burkina Faso · Cameroon · Central African Republic · Chad · Côte d'Ivoire · all 34