Bogolo Joy Kenewendo on Destination Diamonds, Diversification, and De Beers’ Next Owners

By Karen Dybis | May 29, 2026

Attending the just-opened JCK show in Las Vegas, Botswana’s minister of minerals and energy, Bogolo Joy Kenewendo, says she and her country are standing behind what she calls Destination Diamonds—that precious resource that can position Botswana as a leader in branding and building worldwide collaboration, including with De Beers’ next owners.

On that last item, Kenewendo can’t (and won’t) say much. But at De Beers’ annual JCK breakfast today, De Beers Group CEO Al Cook suggested an announcement about new owners is imminent, saying, “Talks are in an advanced stage.”

Kenewendo came to Vegas to meet with industry leaders, connect with new partners, and help with the debut of the House of Botswana booth at the show. She also found time to sit down with JCK for an interview.

Branding of Botwana’s natural diamonds as Development Diamonds is more than words, Kenewendo says—it represents all she hopes to accomplish in her work for her home country.

“When you unpack what development is for us, it’s building sustainable livelihoods. It is building opportunities for those that were born [in Botswana]. But it’s also the nature regeneration that we fund. It is flipping what the narrative has been in the last couple of years for natural diamonds,” she says.

The House of Botswana is one part brand name for consumers and one part signifier for the jewelry industry as to how aligned and purposeful Botswana and its leadership are on its position within the diamond chain “from ground to gown,” Kenewendo tells JCK.

“When we resigned our agreement with De Beers last year after a very contentious negotiation period, one of the things we said was ‘We want to see our diamonds build out active economic diversification, and we need a percentage of the profits that are made to go into economic building,’” she says.

“We are calling for all the other partners that want to join us as we crowdfund for the Diamonds for Development Fund to come in and see what the opportunities are and how we build a non-diamond-dominated reliant economy, because a mono economy and mono-commodity economy is fragile. We know that the resiliency of our economy will depend on diversification,” says Kenewendo.

At the De Beers breakfast, the diamond company announced the appointment of Akinwumi Adesina, former president of African Development Bank, as chairperson of the Diamonds for Development Fund—a partnership between De Beers and Botswana to accelerate the country’s economic diversification and develop a knowledge-based economy.

De Beers committed to an upfront investment of about $75 million for the fund, which Kenewendo says will actively support the introduction or expansion of “niche” industries in Botswana.

Even before heading to Vegas, the minerals minister has had an eventful month. Last week, Botswana hosted the World Federation of Diamond Bourses (WFDB) International Summit for the first time, in its capital city, Gaborone. Both Botswana and Angola were admitted as nation affiliated members of WFDB during the conference.

“It just feels like the next natural step that we position ourselves as a trading hub and we join at the other diamond-trading centers and position ourselves as the leading African trading center for diamonds and other minerals,” Kenewendo says.

At another industry meeting this month, that of the Council of Ministers for the African Diamond Producers Association (ADPA), the group called for the 4Cs system of diamond grading to be used only with natural diamonds—a move Kenewendo applauds. ADPA also called for “synthetics” to be the sole descriptor for lab-grown diamonds in trade and marketing worldwide.

“Differentiation is a very critical part of strengthening the industry and reigniting the industry, the desire for diamonds,” says Kenewendo. “We are so proud that ADPA finally came out and said that, because since we took office, it’s all we’ve been saying. The 4Cs are for the natural diamond, and so it should be standard. And we’ve asked everybody to work on their regulations to ensure that is clear.”

Kenewendo also would like to develop marketing around natural diamonds as family heirlooms, as a way not only to encourage people to buy natural diamonds for the people they love but also to highlight the connections across the supply chain—from mines to manufacturers to retailers—and with consumers.

“We want to work together in really building that desire and sharing the impact with the consumer so that they continue to want to be part of this family,” Kenewendo says. “We build family stones that can be shared across the families.”

Top: Botswana’s minister of minerals and energy, Bogolo Joy Kenewendo, is attending this week’s JCK show in Las Vegas. (Photo by Camilla Sjodin)