>You can't literally point to a single African country that's developed and successful
/me lifts hand and point finger to Botswanna.
/me lifts hand and point finger to Botswanna.
There's plenty of factors that helped, I can think of a dozen right off the top of my head, but the one that made a crucial difference is in my opinion really the above.
Basically this: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Seretse_Khama#Presidency
South Africa also props Botswana up via a customs union.
https://www.tralac.org/news/article/6931-surge-in-botswana-s...
Your numbers are not even close.
> In 2019, the GDP per capita (adjusted for purchasing power parity) was $36,701 in Lithuania, $35,853 in Estonia and $30,830 in Latvia.
Source: https://wedc.org/export/market-intelligence/posts/strong-gro...
Botswana has a $7,347.55 GDP per capita according to Google (in 2021).
That's at least 75% lower than the worst Baltic nation, not "slightly below."
It's probably best compared to something like Qatar, where the hope is it'll be able to use the diamond wealth to found another industry.