13 Oct 2014

Francistown mayor, Councillor James Kgalajwe has encouraged residents of Francistown to take advantage of the Botswana Telecommunication Corporation Limited's (BTCL) Initial Public Offering (IPO) of shares.

Speaking at the BTCL Pitso on October 10, Councillor Kgalajwe urged farmers to sell part of their cattle and invest the money in shares. He said considering that the cattle industry in the region was threatened by the Foot and Mouth Disease (FMD), it was always better to invest in both the BTCL shares and cattle.

Councillor Kgalajwe applauded the government for offering its shares for sale to the members of the public, an initiative that he said would empower them.

One of the Francistown residents, Mr Mmoloki Mfolwe expressed worry that although the sale of shares was aimed at economically empowering Batswana the pricing of shares would determine how many afforded to buy them.

Mr Stanley Inkope called on the relevant authorities to ensure that shares were bought only by Batswana and come up with measures that would ensure that locals did not buy on behalf of foreign nationals. 

Mr Christopher Mmapadi wanted to know the total number of shares and their cost. In response, BTCL managing director, Mr Paul Taylor explained that they were still working on the total number of shares and the prices.

He said sometime in November a prospectus that will specify the number of shares and their prices will be availed. Mr Taylor said they were monitoring measures to ensure that only citizens and citizen owned company purchased the shares and where the measures had been defrauded the concerned parties will forfeit the shares.

He said the objective of the IPO was to empower Batswana therefore the process will be reasonable in order to allow most Batswana to benefit.

Mr Taylor further said application forms of the shares and payment will be done at all Barclays Bank branches across the country. ENDS