19 Aug 2019

Maun business community has hailed Bank of Botswana (BoB) for engaging them to solicit ideas and get feedback on how best they could improve their operations.

For the first time, the central bank governor and the bank’s  senior officials engaged the Maun business community, district leadership and other stakeholders on the economic outlook.

They also shared the contents of the 2018 annual report and provided updates based on more recent information and developments.

Those in attendance were also appraised on the review of economic developments in 2018; highlights of the 2018 annual banking supervision report; foreign exchange reserves management and financing strategies for industrialisation and transition to high income status.

The chairperson of Maun Business, Mr James Evans said what the bank governor and his team were doing was a step in the right direction as it also promotes transparency.

He wished all the recommendations in the report could be implemented as they would have a better path as far as the economic growth was concerned.

Ms Noeline Ndaba also thanked the bank leadership for sharing important information with the business community, but she decried that the presentations were difficult to understand as there was a lot of business jargon.

She wished that next time the leadership could concentrate on one sector rather than grouping all the sectors of the economy.

Earlier on, the governor, Mr Moses Pelaelo said contrary to unfortunate and inaccurate reporting by some in the media, there was neither any money not fully accounted for by the bank nor any outstanding un-reconciled accounts that ought to have been done.

Mr Pelaelo added that over 43 years of the bank’s existence, the financial statements have obtained a clean audit report that confirms appropriate maintenance of accounts, existence of sound risk management and internal control environment and in general effective governance structures at the bank.

Those in attendance learnt that the bank was one of the few central banks in the world whose financial statements were prepared and audited in accordance with the international reporting and auditing standards.

He explained that it was legal requirement that the bank submits the report to the minister of Finance and Economic Development by the end of March and in turn the minister submits it to Parliament by the end of April.

The annual report includes a review of economic developments and outlook as well as the theme topic section, while the review provides an analytical content and explanations for economic developments and prospects as well as background to policy conduct and operations by the bank.

He said the successive theme topics contribute to national economic policy analysis and evaluation, hence the requisite response and transformation needed to sustain the desired level of inclusive and diversified growth of the economy.

The report, he said, served as the primary accountability to the nation on the operations and financial performance of the bank, adding that, ‘we are proud to mention that throughout the subsistence of this provision, Bank of Botswana has never failed to comply with the statutory requirement’.

Mr Pelaelo revealed that the pace of the global economic growth in 2018 moderated against the background of slack in growth of demand and an environment of policy uncertainty induced by heightened trade and geopolitical tensions, increasingly inward looking polices, lack of progress on Brexit and adverse climate.

Meanwhile, in the region and domestically, he said prospects for growth and transformation continued to be adversely affected by both inadequate pace and lack of traction of structural and policy reforms.

“Therefore, you will note that the combination of international developments and the domestic context affect the immediate as well as the medium and long-term outcomes,” he added. ENDS