20 Nov 2023

Former Bank of Botswana (BoB) Governor, Mr Moses Pelaelo has contributed immensely to the country’s central bank and other institutions over the years, and can still assist in giving the nation lessons on mindset change.

These views were articulated by President Dr Mokgweetsi Masisi as Mr Pelaelo paid a courtesy call at the Officer of the President in Gaborone yesterday.

Dr Masisi said using his vast experience garnered over four decades of public service, including in the teaching field, Mr Pelaelo could assist in providing education on fiscal discipline, with the extent of household debt in the country presenting an opportunity for such lessons.

The President expressed gratitude to Mr Pelaelo for his ‘excellent, stellar’ service to the Republic, first as a lecturer at the University of Botswana (UB) and the then Botswana Institute of Administration and Commerce (BIAC), now Botswana Public Service College.

“From UB and BIAC, where you were teaching,  to Bank of Botswana, where you rose through the ranks and saw the bank through a transformative phase, and a period with the Bank of International Settlements in Switzerland, where you coordinated support for banking supervisors from across the world, you have done excellent work,” Dr Masisi said.

Dr Masisi said during bilateral talks earlier this year, the Prime Minister of the Bahamas, Mr Philip Davis had inquired about Mr Pelaelo, indicative of the exceptional work he had done with central banks of the Middle East, South East Asia, Latin America and the Caribbean Islands.

He added that during Mr Pelaelo’s seven-year tenure as BoB Governor, he had assisted in ensuring a stable central bank and oversaw the expansion of the BoB building at the Government Enclave in Gaborone.

“As the fifth President of the Republic, and on behalf of my four predecessors, I thank you for your immense contribution to the development of our central bank. After taking a well-deserved break, you can still offer services to our country, in the private sector, parastatal, the public sector or in the teaching field,” Dr Masisi said.

For his part, Mr Pelaelo thanked President Masisi for the support rendered to him throughout his tenure as governor. He said from 1983 to 2023, he had offered 40 years of public service, which journey had been exciting from lecturing Accounting and Management Studies at BIAC and then being a bank examiner at BoB.

He said decisions of the abolishment of exchange controls in the 1990s had led to the phenomenal growth of the financial sector, accounting to a more significant part of the gross domestic product.

More restructuring was made over the years, including during my seven-year tenure as governor, such as legal reform to make the governor more accountable to the public, Mr Pelaelo said. Ends