07 Aug 2016

Francistown Community has been encouraged to build their wealth under Botswana Stock Exchange Market (BSE) and become millionaires through investing.  

Speaking at the BSE Open day ceremony at Adansonia Hotel in Francistown on Thursday, the mayor of Francistown, Ms Sylvia Muzila said the initiative aimed to open up the BSE to the Francistown community in a bid to educate them about the stock market and the importance of investing.

Ms Muzila thanked the BSE staff for organising the event to raise awareness and inform the local community about the importance of investing and financial education.

She believed that the event would not only avail  platform for sharing ideas and knowledge, but also a good framework for building a consensus on how financial education should be understood and practiced.

In addition, she said this would further serve as a platform to guide participants on the process of investing in BSE listed securities and assist in clarifying some of the concerns harboured by Batswana regarding stock market investment. 

She stated that with tradition forms of investing such as farming and property which had become commonly accepted by Batswana, stock market continued to exclude many Batswana due to lack of information that one could access.

Ms Muzila noted that the growth of the economy depends on having an enlarged and diversified private sector adding that indeed the government has continued to nurture the development of entrepreneurship within the society, particularly with the youth.

BSE chief executive officer, Mr Thapelo Tsheole said they organised the event to increase their reach in the North-East region to sensitise and educate the public about the stock market and the importance of investing. 

He said the initiative served as a platform to guide participants on the process of investing in BSE listed securities and assist in addressing some of the concerns many Batswana might have regarding the stock market.

Mr Tsheole said the BSE would also leverage on the initiative to educate and inform local business owners about the prospects of listing on the BSE by illustrating how a listing could become a catalyst for growth.

“It is also our commitment to continue to nurture the supply side of the market by attracting privately-owned companies to list and by offering investors a wide range of companies to invest in. In the long run, this helps to improve the liquidity in the market,” he said.

For his part,  a representative of the Member of Parliament for Francistown East, Mr Sam Masunga  observed that many young business owners were not well versed on the potential benefits of listing and utilising the stock market as a platform to grow their business not only within the local market, but regionally as well. 

He said more and more of them were taking responsibility of their own retirements needs therefore in the process, savings and investments habits had been drastically transformed.

Mr Masunga said in recent years, financial literacy had assumed greater importance as financial markets, had become increasingly complex and making it difficult for the common man to understand.

He said with the ever changing financial and economic reforms, being financially literate had become essential for individuals. ENDS