06 Jul 2023

 Credit information regulations were published in June 2022 and the act is still under a 12-month-transition period up to August 30, which will allow bureaus to regularise their operations and apply for trading licenses.

Minister of Finance, Ms Peggy Serame said Bank of Botswana had issued application packages to the three existing bureaus to familarise themselves with the application process.

She said there were currently three operating credit bureaus, namely; Credit Reference Bureau Africa, Transunion Botswana and Micro-Finance Credit Bureau.

Ms Serame, who was responding to a question in Parliament, said section 20 of the Credit Information Act required credit bureaus not to collect consumer information on data subject unless the information was collected for a purpose directly related to an activity authorised under its license.

She said section 21 of the act required credit bureaus not to disclose consumer information to a third party unless for conditions statutorily specified. These, she noted, included having obtained prior consent of the data subject in terms of the act and where the disclosure was in accordance with any other law or an order of a court.

The minister said to further ensure that the credit information was not abused, section 22 of the act placed an obligation on a credit bureau to ensure security of consumer information.

In addition, she said Bank of Botswana had put in place appropriate operating and monitoring structures as well as safeguards to ensure compliance with the law.

She said the bank had engaged all relevant regulatory and associations to sensitise them on their roles in the implementation of the act, and it was exploring areas of mutual cooperation with key stakeholders to promote public education and to raise awareness.

She said in terms of the Credit Information Act, prior to providing adverse consumer information data providers were required to give notice in writing to the concerned borrower of its intention to provide such adverse information.

She said section 36 of the act required a data provider to notify a borrower in writing and within five days if it had taken adverse action against such a borrower in whole or part on a credit report obtained from a credit bureau and to give reasons for the adverse action.

Furthermore, she said a borrower had the right under section 37 of the act to challenge a credit bureau in writing on the information contained in a credit report if the borrower felt that information about them was inaccurate, incomplete or outdated.

Ms Serame said section 20 of the Data Protection Act 2018 prohibited the processing of sensitive personal information without the consent of the consumers unless determined by the data controller.

She assured Parliament that there were provisions in the law to mitigate undue blacklisting of borrowers.

Gaborone North, Mr Mpho Balopi had asked the minister whether the Credit Information Act of 2021 had been operationalised and to state how many bureaus were licensed to operate.

He also wanted to know measures in place to ensure that credit information of individuals or organisations was not used for malicious purposes, and what measures were in place to protect borrowers from being blacklisted before they were given adequate notice on the intention to blacklist to avoid unexpected inconveniences. ENDs