29 Feb 2016

The Minister of Finance and Development Planning says consistent with government policy on localisation, the government and Bank of Botswana (BoB) continue to urge commercial banks to localise senior management positions.

Mr Kenneth Matambo said efforts made to localise top management positions have borne fruit as three out of four top commercial banks accounting for 80 per cent of the banking industry assets have localised positions of chief executive officer (CEO)

He further said Barclays Bank of Botswana was the first commercial bank to localise the position of managing director (MDs) in 2001 followed by two successive citizen MDs in 2003 and 2010.

“In 2010 and 2012, the two citizen MDs respectively terminated their employment with Barclays Bank Botswana for various reasons and this departure of key senior staff of a large bank was a cause for concern to BoB and Barclays Plc, the parent bank of Barclays,” he said.

Minister Matambo further said the departure of the two MDs created instability in the management of the bank’s operations which had the potential to undermine its safety and soundness. He said consequently, Barclays Plc deployed one of its senior management staff from the regional group head office in South Africa to Botswana as MD with the specific mandate to stabilise the bank. “Efforts are being made to identify and groom a qualified and experienced citizen as the future leader of the bank, and the bank is expected to appoint a citizen MD at the expiry of the contract of the current expatriate MD,” said Minister Matambo.

He said the current board of directors of Barclays Bank comprises of four citizens of Botswana and two expatriate executive directors and the chairperson of the board was also a citizen. The MP for Okavango, Mr Bagalatia Arone had asked the minister to state efforts to localise top management positions in the local private banking sector with specific reference to Barclays Bank of Botswana and the composition of the board of directors at Barclays in relation to local participation. Ends