26 Jul 2022

Botswana Stock Exchange (BSE) leadership’s recent visit to the United States has been hailed as a success.

In a wide ranging interview with BOPA, BSE chief executive officer, Mr Thapelo Tsheole said the trip included meeting with important stakeholders in New York and Washington as well as a visit to NASDAQ, the world’s second biggest bourse by market capitalisation.

He said the three-person delegation,  which included market development and product development heads Ms Thapelo Moribame and Mr Thapelo Bolokwe respectively, managed to pursue valuable engagements that were expected to bear fruit.

“When you look at the investor profile of the BSE market, you realise that about 40 to 50 per cent of the investments are coming from outside Africa, mostly from the US market and the United Kingdom market. Therefore in our new strategy that we have started this year; that will run for five years, we realise that we need to do a lot of business development with those two markets,” said Mr Tsheole.

Regarding BSE’s engagement with NASDAQ, Mr Tsheole said  it was anchored on an existing relationship.

“When we hosted the African Securities Exchanges Association (ASEA) Conference in Kasane in 2019, NASDAQ was one of the sponsors, and we also use their technology in the BSE. We discussed our bilateral relationship, the activities that we could pursue jointly and our technology needs as the BSE,” he said.

He revealed that the two organisations had commenced  discussions on the possibility of issuing NASDAQ listed shares on the local market.

“We have been looking at the opportunity to structure some depository receipts; these are instruments where we will take some of the shares listed in NASDAQ and put them in the BSE to offer people in our country as well as Southern Africa and the continent the prospect to buy those shares here in Botswana,” said Mr Tsheole.

He said the BSE itinerary included  meeting potential bond issuers and asset managers with a view to attracting investment and discussing the necessary product improvements.

Mr Tsheole said since Botswana had in 2019 for the first time listed a bond by the US’ International Financial Corporation, future issuances were discussed.

“In addition, we met US asset managers, particularly those who invest in the BSE to address the opportunities and challenges that exist in the Botswana market,” he revealed.

The BSE chief said the delegation engaged US institutions and companies for the purpose of  training and equipping the organisation’s human resource as well as to solicit training for local companies.

One such institution, he said, was the Milken Institute where BSE normally sent its staff for training and development.

“We discussed continuing to provide capacity to our staff through them. Furthermore, we spoke to companies who could structure services and funding for our Tshipidi Mentorship Programme,” said Mr Tsheole.

During a reception hosted by the Botswana Permanent Mission to the UN in New York, the BSE representatives also got to meet President Dr Mokgweetsi Masisi, who was in the US for the UN’s Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC) high level political forum.

Mr Tsheole said generally the US tour had given them great insights and helped them to nurture existing partnerships and forge new ones including in social impact investing, which could yield benefits for local small and medium enterprises (SMEs) to help grow them and eventually list on the stock market. ENDS