BSE poised for global dominance

BAKANG TIRO

editors@thepatriot.co.bw

The Botswana Stock Exchange (BSE) Chief Executive Officer, Thapelo Tsheole, has said the local bourse will be bolstered by its admission to the World Federation of Exchanges (WEF) organisation.

Speaking on Thursday on an occasion to celebrate the WFE recognition, Tsheole said some of the benefits that BSE would reap from its WEF membership subscription include amongst others adapting the bourse to the evolving and fast-changing global investment.

“The Integrity of the domestic capital market will grow as we align our capital market standards with international best practices. It will also position the BSE as the ideal investment destination leveraging Botswana’s competitive advantages,” said Tsheole, confident of the BSE’s growth.

He also said the BSE will lure global fund managers and sovereign wealth funds with frontier and emerging market investment strategies, adding that it will also give the BSE exposure and access to events, meetings, research, capital markets statistics and studies that provide useful support to the BSE’s development.

He also said they will disseminate BSE information and market statistics through the WFE network across the world and hence benefit from the publicity and integrity of such a network. Access to events, meetings, research, capital markets statistics and studies would provide useful support to the BSE’s development.

BSE board member Professor Onkutlule Othata said the BSE joined the WFE in June 2016 as an Affiliate Member and commenced the membership upgrade process from Affiliate to Full Member in 2022.

“This was a very rigorous process that involved a comprehensive and thorough evaluation of the Exchange, the quality and depth of the Botswana market, the regulatory environment, information technology infrastructure, risk management strategies as well as Anti-Money Laundering practices, among others,” said Othata.

Othata said earlier this year the WFE Inspection Team visited Botswana to hold a physical onsite inspection that involved meetings with the BSE Management and independent meetings with key stakeholders that included the Ministry of Finance, Bank of Botswana, NBFIRA, Sefalana Holdings Limited and Motswedi Securities.