Over the festive season, the liquor industry operated for 24 hours. The Ministry of Trade has since invited public input on whether this should become the norm. As that debate unfolds, attention should turn to the quietest beneficiaries of extended trading hours: women.
Across Botswana, women dominate much of the informal economy surrounding licensed premises. They sell grilled meat outside the gate. They prepare paleche at midnight. They supply late-night catering, clean venues after events, and manage security shifts. They are the service economy that exists because the night economy exists.
When the trading window expands, their earning window expands. That alone is a measurable benefit.
Women Run the Surrounding Economy
A liquor outlet is rarely just a liquor outlet. It is an anchor around which a web of small enterprises forms much of it female led.
For informal traders, income is directly tied to foot traffic and time. If doors close at midnight, customers disappear at midnight. If trade continues, income continues.
An extra two or three hours can mean covering school fees without borrowing, restocking inventory without credit, paying rent on time, or easing household pressure. Economic policy must be judged not only by tax revenue, but by its effect on household stability and in many homes, that stability is carried by women.
Predictability Improves Safety and Income
Extended hours also reduce the pressure created by simultaneous closing times. When every outlet shuts at once, streets flood, vendors face sudden surges, and transport systems strain.
International experience, including in Australia and the United Kingdom, shows staggered or extended hours can spread movement over time and reduce flashpoints.
For women trading outside venues, gradual dispersal means more manageable customer flow, less congestion, safer working conditions, and more predictable sales. Predictability is not a luxury; it is an economic stabiliser.
Regulation Protects Informal Traders
Restricted hours often push demand into unregulated spaces, undermining both compliance and safety. A structured 24-hour framework keeps activity within licensed, monitored environments.
For women whose businesses depend on operating near licensed premises, this means security presence, visible law enforcement, stable customer traffic, and reduced risk of sudden disruption. Proper regulation is not a threat to informal women traders it is a safeguard.
The Real Policy Question
The Ministry of Trade deserves credit for piloting extended hours over the festive season and now consulting the public. That is decisive leadership balanced with consultation.
But this debate must stay grounded in lived economic reality. Women are not peripheral to the night economy they sustain it. When policy recognises where women already create value, it does not grant opportunity; it stops constraining it.
As Gloria Steinem reminds us:
“The story of women’s struggle for equality belongs to no single feminist nor to any one organization, but to the collective efforts of all who care about human rights.”
Extending economic space for women is not an indulgence. It is a practical step toward equality and equality is sound economics.
