Employer of Record in Botswana: A Comprehensive Guide for 2026

Introduction

Employment in Botswana is governed by the Employment and Labour Relations Act, 2025, which replaced the Employment Act and consolidated the country's labour statutes. Employers withhold Pay As You Earn (PAYE) income tax for the Botswana Unified Revenue Service, and payroll cannot run without a local legal employer, which means either a subsidiary or an employer of record in Botswana.

Hiring a foreign national in Botswana also requires a work permit under the Employment of Non-Citizens Act, a residence permit, and an employment visa. Each depends on a registered local employer, and registering one means incorporating with the Companies and Intellectual Property Authority and appointing a licensed company secretary.

In this guide, we cover entitlements, contractor classification, work permits, termination, and payroll in Botswana, so you can cost a Botswana hire and decide between a subsidiary and an employer of record.

Botswana at a glance

Population: 2.6 million

Currency: Botswana Pula (BWP)

Capital city: Gaborone

Languages Spoken: English and Tswana.

GDP:  $21.94 billion

What laws govern employment in Botswana?

Employment in Botswana is governed by the Employment and Labour Relations Act, 2025, which came into effect on 1 July 2026 and repealed the Employment act. The Act consolidates the former Employment Act, the Trade Unions and Employers' Organisations Act, and the Trade Disputes Act into a single statute, and it applies to all workers including those in the informal economy and the public service, with limited exclusions for the security services.

Employers hiring in Botswana should review contracts, leave policies, and payroll rules against the new Act before onboarding.

What are employee entitlements in Botswana?

The table below covers the main statutory entitlements in Botswana.

Botswana's Employment and Labour Relations Act ties the notice period to the employee's pay interval, triggers severance after 60 consecutive months of service, and requires PAYE registration with the Botswana Unified Revenue Service within 14 days of the first hire. Each of those obligations needs an owner inside your business from the day the offer is signed.

Skuad supports this without requiring entity setup in Botswana. Here is what Skuad helps with:

• Supports employment contract generation across 160+ countries, aligned with local labor laws and statutory requirements
• Facilitates statutory contribution and withholding workflows across supported markets
• Supports payroll processing in 70+ currencies with tax withholding and statutory deductions
• Helps administer statutory leave, paid holidays, and parental entitlements in line with local requirements
• Assists with notice periods, severance calculations, and offboarding as required in each market
• Supports onboarding, contracts, and employee records from a single dashboard

See how Skuad supports Botswana employment compliance end to end. Book a demo now

Should you hire contractors or employees in Botswana?

Employment contracts in Botswana may be oral or written. Section 150 of the Employment and Labour Relations Act, 2025 governs oral and written contracts of employment, replacing section 14 of the former Employment Act.

A written contract remains the safer choice, because it records the terms a labour officer or arbitrator will examine first in a dispute. There is no statutory requirement to draft the contract in a local language, as English is an official language of Botswana. Wages must be paid in legal tender, so payroll runs in Botswana Pula even where an offer is negotiated in another currency. When you hire through an EOR, the EOR acts as the legal employer and issues the employment contract, and your company signs a service agreement with the EOR.

Full-time employees work set hours for a single employer under a contract of employment. They receive a fixed salary and the statutory entitlements the Act provides, including paid leave and severance after qualifying service. Notice of termination is the default position, though section 168 of the Act provides for termination of employment without notice where an employee commits serious misconduct.

Contractors are independent workers engaged for a defined project or scope. They invoice for their work and take care of their own tax registration. A company engaging a genuine contractor does not owe statutory employment benefits, and the engagement ends according to the terms of the commercial agreement. That position holds only while the classification holds.

Contractor engagements offer flexibility for short-term or specialised work, and they keep administrative overhead low because the contractor invoices and files independently. Full-time employment gives you continuity, direct control over how the work is done, and a clearer claim to the output.

The classification decision carries more weight in Botswana than it did a year ago. Section 151 of the Employment and Labour Relations Act, 2025 introduces a statutory presumption of employment, under which a worker meeting tests of control and dependency is treated as an employee even where the contract describes them as a contractor. A misclassified engagement can expose you to back PAYE assessments, retroactive severance, and reclassification of the relationship.

Audit any long-running contractor relationship against the control and dependency tests before renewing it. Where a role involves set hours, direct supervision, and a single client, employment is usually the safer classification.

The choice between a Botswana employee and a contractor changes who carries PAYE withholding, severance liability, and misclassification exposure, and that choice rarely stays the same across every role on a team.

Skuad supports both hiring models from a single platform:

EOR for full-time employees

• Acts as the legal employer across 160+ countries, so hiring can begin without a local entity
• Supports employment contract generation aligned with local labor law across supported markets
• Facilitates statutory contribution and withholding workflows across supported markets
• Supports payroll processing in 70+ currencies with tax withholding and year-end reconciliation
• Assists with notice periods, severance calculations, and offboarding as required in each market

Contractor management

• Helps onboard contractors on locally compliant agreements that reduce misclassification exposure
• Supports invoice generation, approval workflows, and payment processing
• Helps flag classification risk early through built-in worker classification checks
• Facilitates payouts across 70+ currencies without manual reconciliation
• Helps keep contractor agreements, records, and payment history in one dashboard alongside employees

Whichever model fits the role, the classification decision is worth getting right before the first payment goes out.

Full-time or contractor, Skuad supports both models in Botswana. See pricing

How do you hire employees in Botswana?

Hiring in Botswana concentrates in Gaborone, with Francistown as the second centre. Mining and quarrying remains the largest single sector and diamonds account for roughly 80 per cent of export earnings, though mining employs relatively few people directly. Most formal employment is in government, retail, education, healthcare, financial services, and tourism, which is where hiring demand for professional roles actually sits.

Employers typically source through local job boards, recruitment agencies, and direct referral. Jobs Botswana carries the widest range of active listings across the main towns and covers both contract and permanent roles.

Job boards move quickly, which helps when time is the constraint. They also put the burden of verifying credentials entirely on you, and that verification is harder to do at distance without a local HR presence. Skuad supports background checks as part of the hiring workflow, covering identity verification, employment history, criminal records, and education credentials, so you know who you are onboarding before contracts are signed. Combined with Skuad's EOR infrastructure, candidate verification through to compliant onboarding runs on one platform.

What are the probation and termination rules in Botswana?

Probation and termination in Botswana are governed by the Employment and Labour Relations Act, 2025, which came into force on 1 July 2026

An employment contract may include a probation period, and the length must be stated in writing before employment starts. Either party may terminate during probation, and the employer must give notice.

Under sections 155(4) and 155(5), an employer must set performance expectations at the start of probation, assess the worker against them, give feedback, and allow a reasonable opportunity to improve before terminating. Terminations during probation with no evidence of assessment, feedback, or support may now be challenged as unfair.

Botswana rewrote its termination rules on 1 July 2026. Probationary dismissal now requires documented assessment, summary dismissal is limited to serious misconduct, and retrenchment requires consultation before any decision, so policies drafted under the old Employment Act no longer hold.

Skuad's Shield supports compliance monitoring across supported markets, covering contract terms, statutory notice requirements, and offboarding steps as local rules change, so your Botswana policies stay current without your team tracking each amendment.

What does an employer of record do in Botswana?

An employer of record in Botswana is a locally registered entity that employs staff on your behalf. It appears as the legal employer on the contract, registers for PAYE with the Botswana Unified Revenue Service, runs payroll in Pula, and carries the statutory obligations that come with employment.

Your company keeps direction of the work, ownership of what the employee produces, and the commercial relationship. The EOR carries the employment obligations. That split is what allows a company with no Botswana entity to hire there legally.

Registering a subsidiary in Botswana means CIPA incorporation, a resident director, tax registration with BURS, a local bank account, a trade licence from the district authority, and audited financial statements filed every year. That is a permanent legal and finance commitment for what may be two or three hires.

Skuad helps remove that dependency. Skuad acts as the legal employer, so your company can hire, onboard, and pay employees in Botswana without entity setup or in-house local HR infrastructure.Here is what Skuad supports:

• Acts as the legal employer across 160+ countries, so hiring can start without a local entity
• Supports employment contract generation aligned with local labor law across supported markets
• Supports payroll processing in 70+ currencies with statutory withholding and deductions
• Facilitates statutory contribution and filing workflows across supported markets
• Assists with termination, notice, and severance requirements as they apply locally
• Supports work permit and visa applications for foreign nationals joining your team

What visas and permits do foreign employees need in Botswana?

Hiring a foreign national in Botswana runs through three steps in sequence. The employer secures a work permit under the Employment of Non-Citizens Act, the employee then obtains a residence permit, and the employment visa follows.

Foreign nationals may stay in Botswana for 90 days without applying for a residence or work permit, so the permit requirement attaches to working, not to entry.

What visa types does Botswana issue?

Applications are made through the Department of Immigration and Citizenship, online through the eVisa portal at evisa.gov.bw, at regional and district immigration offices, or at missions abroad.

How do you get a work permit in Botswana?

A work permit is required before any foreign national begins work in Botswana.

Two routes exist outside the standard application. An emergency work permit covers urgent short-notice appointments, and an appeal can be lodged where a permit application is refused.

What documents are required for a Botswana work permit?

The following documents are required to obtain a work permit in Botswana

• Completed work permit application form
• Original medical report
• Copy of job advertisement not older than 6 months old
• Copy of Employment Contract
• Signed Application letter for work
• Appointment letter or Letter of offer
• Applicants’ CV
• Certified copies of educational certificates translated into English
• Certified copy of a valid passport
• Passport-size photos (2 Copies)

Every foreign national working in Botswana needs a valid permit under the Employment of Non-Citizens Act, and the employer must first show that no suitable local candidate is available. Sponsorship also depends on holding a registered local employer, which is where a company with no Botswana entity gets stuck.

Skuad supports the work permit process on your behalf, including:

• Supporting work permit applications for foreign employees joining your team
• Helping coordinate visa documentation with the relevant local immigration authorities
• Assisting with residence and work permit conversions as required by local immigration law
• Helping track documentation requirements and renewal deadlines across the permit lifecycle
• Helping keep your team aligned with compliance requirements as permit rules change

What are the payroll and tax rules in Botswana?

How does payroll work in Botswana?

Payroll in Botswana runs on PAYE. Employers register with the Botswana Unified Revenue Service, withhold income tax from each salary payment, and remit monthly. There is no national social security contribution for private sector employees, so PAYE is the main statutory deduction. There are three different ways of expanding in Botswana.

• By setting up a subsidiary and establishing an in-house HR team to manage the payroll.
• By engaging a local payroll provider to run filings against the Employment and Labour Relations Act, 2025, in force since 1 July 2026.
• By outsourcing payroll to EOR companies such as Skuad

What income tax rates apply in Botswana?

Botswana has no national social security fund for private sector employees. PAYE rates differ between resident and non-resident taxpayers.

Resident individuals are taxed progressively, and the 1 July 2026 reform introduced a new top marginal rate of 27.5% on income above BWP 400,000 a year. Current bands should be confirmed against the Botswana Unified Revenue Service before relying on them for payroll.

Corporate income tax rates

Botswana repealed and re-enacted its income tax law with effect from 1 July 2026, raising the resident corporate rate and cutting the non-resident rate to the same level.

Botswana also introduced a domestic minimum top-up tax in line with BEPS Pillar Two.

Beyond PAYE, employers should budget for the training levy, workers' compensation cover, and VAT where applicable.

Botswana runs a PAYE system with a 27.5% top rate, and employer-side costs sit on top of gross salary once the training levy and workers' compensation cover are counted. Budgeting a Botswana hire means modelling all of that before the offer goes out.

Skuad's employee cost calculator helps you model gross salary, statutory contributions, and total employer cost by country, so finance can size a Botswana headcount plan before recruitment starts.

Model the full employer cost of a Botswana hire before you make the offer

How do you incorporate a subsidiary in Botswana?

You can incorporate a subsidiary in Botswana through the Companies and Intellectual Property Authority under the Companies Act. The available forms are the private company (Proprietary Limited), the public company (Limited), the company limited by guarantee, and the close company. Foreign businesses can also register as an external company, branch office, or representative office without incorporating a subsidiary.

Most foreign investors use the private company limited by shares, which offers limited liability with lighter disclosure obligations than a public company.

What are the requirements for a Botswana subsidiary?

Requirements vary by entity type. A private company needs at least one shareholder, who may be of any nationality.

Botswana sets no minimum paid-up share capital, and CIPA does not require proof of capital deposit before issuing the certificate of incorporation. A registered office is mandatory, and it must be a physical address in Botswana rather than a PO Box.

Every company must appoint a company secretary within three months of incorporation, except close companies, which appoint accounting officers instead. Following the Companies (Amendment) Act, 2025, only individuals licensed by the Registrar may act as company secretary. Audited financial statements and an annual return are filed with CIPA.

The Companies (Amendment) Act, 2025 also requires companies operating without their own constitution to adopt and file one with the Registrar. CIPA has extended that deadline to 30 September 2026.

Incorporating a subsidiary is suitable when you plan to hold assets, sign local contracts, or build a large team in Botswana. For two or three hires, the incorporation, resident service agent, company secretary, constitution filing, and annual audit obligations rarely justify the cost.

Skipping the entity does not remove the underlying requirement, because payroll in Botswana still needs a registered local employer behind it. That is the role an employer of record fills, and Skuad acts as the legal employer so you can hire and pay without registering with CIPA.

Customer story: How RemoteLock hired 26 people across six countries with Skuad

RemoteLock is a Denver-based access control software company that needed to build a technical team across Europe, Africa, and South Asia. Hiring full-time staff and consultants in Romania, Kenya, Nigeria, Ghana, India, and Egypt at the same time meant tracking six sets of labor and tax rules without a local entity in any of them. Skuad supported compliant onboarding, multi-currency payroll across 70+ currencies, and misclassification protection from one dashboard. RemoteLock hired 26 people across those six countries.

"Partnering with Skuad has transformed our international hiring and onboarding processes. Their streamlined approach has enabled our tech team to scale effortlessly and efficiently."

- Ravi Bhalotia, Senior VP of Engineering, RemoteLock

Read the full case study

What is the difference between an EOR and a PEO in Botswana?

A Professional Employer Organization shares responsibility for managing employees and payroll with your company. An EOR carries the employment obligations in full. A PEO works alongside your business, which means you need a registered Botswana entity of your own before a PEO arrangement is possible.

Co-employment originates in United States law and has no equivalent statutory basis in Botswana. That matters more since 1 July 2026, because section 151 of the Employment and Labour Relations Act, 2025 introduces a presumption of employment based on control and dependency. Where two parties claim to share employer status, that test asks which one actually directs the worker.

For a company with no Botswana entity, the PEO route is not available. Registration with CIPA comes first, which is the same threshold the EOR model removes.

Hire in Botswana through an employer of record

Botswana rewrote two statutes on the same day. The Employment and Labour Relations Act, 2025 came into force on 1 July 2026, replacing the Employment Act and changing probation, termination, leave entitlements, and worker classification. The income tax law was repealed and re-enacted the same day, moving the corporate rate and adding a new top individual band. Contracts, policies, and payroll set up under the old framework need review.

Skuad supports the operational side of hiring in Botswana, covering employment contracts, PAYE withholding, statutory leave, severance calculations, work permits, and ongoing compliance, so your team can stay focused on the work itself.

Companies across SaaS, logistics, e-commerce, and technology use Skuad to support entry into new African markets, stay aligned with local requirements as they change, and grow a Botswana team without building local HR infrastructure from scratch.

Start hiring in Botswana without entity setup. Book a demo

FAQs

1. What is an employer of record in Botswana?

An employer of record in Botswana is a local entity that legally employs staff on another company's behalf under the Employment and Labour Relations Act, 2025. It registers for PAYE with the Botswana Unified Revenue Service, runs payroll in Pula, and carries the statutory employment obligations.

2. Does an EOR need to be registered in Botswana?

The EOR must hold local registration. It incorporates with the Companies and Intellectual Property Authority, registers for PAYE with the Botswana Unified Revenue Service, and appears as the employer on the contract. The client company generally needs no Botswana registration of its own.

3. Can a foreign company hire in Botswana without a local entity?

Foreign companies can typically hire in Botswana through an EOR without registering with the Companies and Intellectual Property Authority. The EOR holds the employment contract, withholds PAYE for the Botswana Unified Revenue Service, and carries the local compliance obligations attached to the role.

4. What happens if a Botswana worker is misclassified as a contractor?

Misclassification usually exposes employers to back PAYE assessments from the Botswana Unified Revenue Service, plus interest and retroactive severance. Section 151 of the Employment and Labour Relations Act, 2025 adds a statutory presumption of employment, under which control and dependency outweigh what the contract says.

5. What statutory benefits must an employer provide in Botswana?

Statutory entitlements typically include paid annual leave, paid public holidays, and workers' compensation cover. The Employment and Labour Relations Act, 2025 extended maternity leave to 14 weeks at 70 per cent of salary and added paternity and hospitalisation leave. Severance generally applies after 60 months of continuous service.

6. Can an employer of record sponsor a work permit in Botswana?

Most EOR providers can sponsor permits, since sponsorship requires a locally registered employer. Under the Employment of Non-Citizens Act the sponsoring employer must also show no suitable local candidate was available, which the EOR generally supports as part of the application.