What is currently playing out between the Bank of Botswana on one hand and the First National Bank on the other has put into public display the most unsavoury aspects of human relations in Botswana’s finance sector. This is a sector that enjoys covering itself under a dark blanket, only occasionally coming out to tell the rest of us the lesser mortals in their technical language just how well they compare with the best in the world.
There is a need to put the whole thing into context. Bank of Botswana is a very powerful institution enjoying the backing of a litany of laws in the discharge of its mandate. As part of that power, Bank of Botswana can decide who can own a bank and who can become a leader of a commercial bank as has happened so many times through their vetting processes. And we have nothing against that. As history would bear us out, Bank of Botswana is very thorough in many of the things it does.
But it would be foolhardy to conclude that personalities never come into play as it adopts the big decisions that the Bank has to take from time to time. At the moment, the Bank is led by one Linah Mohohlo ÔÇô a strong-willed and domineering personality whose knack has allowed her to rise from being a secretarial clerk in the mid-seventies to being a Governor of a Central Bank of a fast growing modern economy. Hers is an amazing story of perseverance, hard work and dedication. But it’s common knowledge that along her path to the top has not been without casualties. We point this out lest her rise to the top degenerates into a fairytale pampered only with roses that would otherwise make it good to believe.
On account of her strong personality, even her two current deputies often come across as little featherless ducklings that are struggling hopelessly to asset their identities. The Bank of Botswana has some of the most brilliant group of people that can be found anywhere in the world. Intellectually, the Bank can very easily compete with institutions of a similar mandate anywhere in the world. But the problems with Bank of Botswana always boils down to personality defects of the leader. From where we are seated it would seem like the current dispute with FNBB has nuances of private orientation more than public duty.
The current Governor has been in that position for so long that she has had all the time; in fact much more than she would ever have asked for to mould the Bank into her own persona. It is thus not surprising that the Bank is aloof, arrogant, resentful and detached. Along the lines of the Governor’s personality, the Bank is increasingly viewed by many Batswana as a distant, overbearing and we now know also tyrannical institution with all the hallmarks of antiquated Victorian etiquettes. It is our view that it would serve the Bank handsomely and indeed the Governor herself to hire an independent image expert from outside the country to come and help them understand just what the general public thinks of Bank of Botswana. We cannot name any one Motswana who has received more international awards in recognition of the excellent job that they doing than Ms Linah Mohohlo.
She sits on the Board of Directors of some of the country’s most important institutions like Debswana and NBFIRA, to name but a few. She has served in some of the most prestigious international commissions like that which was appointed by Former British Prime Minister Tony Blair a few years ago to advice on how Africa could be put on track for fast economic growth and governance. Our view though is that notwithstanding all these accomplishment, or possibly because of them, the more she succeeds, the closer she stays too close to her files and high walls and further away from the public she is at least in theory supposed to serve. Additionally, notwithstanding the immensely important economic responsibility that the Bank is tasked with doing this newspaper will not be surprised to learn that many Batswana would not have a problem with the Bank being closed as long as money printing can continue from elsewhere. This is because Batswana are not able to relate to the Bank. Like the Governor herself, the more the Bank succeeds in carrying out its statutory mandate the more it gets detached from the people it has been created to serve. Last year the Governor delivered a seminal speech to the banking fraternity imploring them to do more to the society in which they do business.
Quite rightly, and we still applaud her for it, she said commercial banks that are making millions in profits from Botswana found nothing wrong giving back to this country in corporate social responsibilities while they gave out much more in the capitals where their headquarters are domiciled, especially London and to a lesser extent Johannesburg. But it would be interesting to know when it was the last time the Governor dedicated a few minutes of her time to help the less privileged members of our society. And in here we are not even talking about delivering a cheque, because sometimes more often personally doing something with your hands at your own time can create much more lasting impressions than doling out big cheques, which though often appreciated are much more mechanical as a gesture while what is needed are humane, emotional or even sentimental gestures. We would not be surprised if even the Minister of Finance, who is nominally supposed to be a supervisor to the Governor is himself overawed by this strong-willed woman. It is unfortunate that almost at the end of what has no doubt been an illustrious career, Ms Mohohlo should now allow the demons of a little woman in herself to take control and cloud her much vaunted and trusted judgment.
If it is true, and we have no reason to doubt it is not, then the treatment that Bank of Botswana is meting against FNBB Chief Executive to avenge the sacking of a family member who misbehaved should make all of us to hang our heads in shame, especially coming from an institution like Bank of Botswana that prides itself as a high horse of corporate governance international best practices.
