02 Sep 2020

Batswana have been urged to actively participate in the Botswana Stock Exchange (BSE) as it is a vehicle for wealth creation.

Officiating at the BSE Opening Bell ceremony for September in Gaborone yesterday, Gaborone City Mayor, Mr Father Maphongo said stock market was often referred to as the epicentre of capital markets, hence Batswana needed to utilise it to derive benefits to better their lives.

The Opening Bell ceremony was combined with the official launching of the revamped BSE website, mobile application and stock market ticker held under a theme; Bridging the Technology Gap - Launch of BSE Website, Mobile App & Ticker.

Mayor Maphongo said the stock market was a critical component of any country’s financial system, saying ‘BSE performs a crucial function of facilitating the formation, allocation and mobility of capital’.

He hailed BSE for being an instrumental player in growing Botswana’s economy and assisting to transform it into a middle-income status country.

The mayor said BSE’s role in promoting a robust private sector to facilitate further development was commendable.

He said most of the listed entities on the BSE were household names from major sectors such as retail, banking, ICT, property and tourism.

He mentioned that the growth of those entities through accessing equity or debt finance from the BSE had paved a way for significant changes such as improved productivity, increase in job creation for Batswana, improvements in better roads, buildings, ICT, increase in household income and implementation of technological innovative ideas.

Regarding the introduction of new platforms, Mr Maphongo said they were overdue, especially that ‘we live in a day and age where the flow of information is key towards assisting individuals and corporates to make informed, investment decisions”.

He therefore hailed the national stock exchange, saying it had lived by its mandate of promoting efficient transparency in the market by launching those three platforms.

He said the physical structure of the stock market ticker, situated at Gaborone’s Central Business District, would not only assist the BSE in terms of information dissemination, but would also ensure that many companies around the city showcased their brand to a wider populace in a bid to solicit clientele.

For his part, BSE CEO, Mr Thapelo Tsheole said the three technological advancements were meant to improve visibility for the bourse, as well as listed companies and to increase the flow of information stakeholders. Ends