Barclays Life Botswana Limited on Wednesday announced that, subject to regulatory approval, it intends to officially change its name to Absa Life Botswana Limited on 10 February this year.
“We have served Botswana for almost 9 years, and can trace our company’s roots as far back as 2011, demonstrating the strength of our commitment to Botswana,” said Motshabi Mokone, Managing Director of Barclays Life. “In 2011 we began as Absa Life and later Barclays Life in Botswana, and now we’re about to embark on a new and exciting chapter in the company’s history, as we embrace our new Absa identity.
Barclays’s change is part of one of the largest, most ambitious corporate rebranding projects in the continent’s history and part of a broader, multi-country rebrand programme by parent company, Absa Group Limited.
After over 3 years of preparation we have announced with much pride that we will officially be known as Absa Life Botswana Pty Limited from 10 February 2020 onwards. Even though some of our branches and other assets have already started to look like Absa, with a warm, vibrant red colour palette, we will continue to operate and trade as Barclays Life until the name officially changes. Barclays Life has also been firing up the anticipation with a dynamic marketing and advertising campaign in anticipation of the Absa launch.
“With our name change now imminent, we stand on the precipice of a new era, one that is full of possibilities and that will allow us to embrace our ambition as an independent African entity, with global scalability, but still very cognisant of our role in society, under a new name: Absa Life,” said Motshabi Mokone.
Parent company Absa Group Limited is one of the largest banking groups in Africa, with a balance sheet of more than USD 91 billion (as at 30 June 2019), operations across 12 African countries, and a representative office in London, with another one soon to open in New York. The Group has approximately 40,000 employees, more than 1,000 branches, and nearly 10,000 ATMs.
For customers, all policies and contact details, etc. will remain active and function as they have always done before the name change. Barclays Life will not ask customers to furnish any additional information during this period, and all records will remain the same before and after the transition. Barclays Life has urged customers to be particularly vigilant during this time, as fraudsters are always looking for opportunities to obtain important personal information.
The date of the name change will be a massive milestone in a carefully planned process for both Barclays Life and Absa Group Limited. This has been no small feat and the entire organisation is passionately proud to be part of this broad, multi-country rebrand programme, scheduled to be completed by mid-2020.