02 Feb 2017

The Minister of Finance and Economic Development says  government, through Bank of Botswana (BoB) and his ministry, has continued to encourage licensed banks to expand their networks to all parts of the country in an effort to facilitate financial inclusion.

Mr Kenneth Matambo, who was responding to a question from specially elected Kgosi Isaac Titus at the ongoing Ntlo Ya Dikgosi session, said this effort was augmented by government's investment in infrastructure development such as road network, electricity and telecommunications to enable banks to set up in rural areas.

The minister, however, noted that the decision to invest in any area in Botswana, including Tsabong, was dependent on the individual bank's assessment of the commercial viability of setting up business operations in those areas.

Furthermore he said besides “brick and mortar” presence, banks could reach out to customers by electronic channels, such as mobile money technologies.

Kgosi Titus had asked if the minister would consider liaising with other banking institutions to open branches in Tsabong to complement Barclays to improve service delivery.

Meanwhile, the Assistant Minister of Local Government and Rural Development, Ms Botlogile Tshireletso, told dikgosi that D'kar kgotla would not be considered for upgrading. 

She said the village had a low crime rate that translated to two cases in 2014, six in 2015 and three in 2016 with a population  of 1 009.

She also stated that it was also adequately serviced by Ghanzi, which was 35 km away.    

Ms Tshireletso noted that upgrading of dikgosana to that of headman of record level had financial implications since the positions had to be created for those dikgotla. 

This also, she noted, called for the creation of posts for support staff and due to the manpower growth freeze, it was not possible. 

Meanwhile dikgosi argued that crime rate could not be used to justify the upgrading of headmen. 

They said if the kgosana was able to maintain peace and order in his village this positive development should not be used to deny him the opportunity to be upgraded. 

Nevertheless she said her ministry would continue to look into these cases and resources permitting, consideration would be made. She further explained that in some cases, the ministry had upgraded some dikgosana to headman of record level even though their populations were 1000.   

Kgosi Justice Moseki of Ghanzi Region had asked the minister when the D'kar would be upgrade to headman of record level. BOPA