The Botswana Stock Exchange (BSE) says it intends to position itself as the preferred destination for issuers and investors by offering diversified products and services while leveraging on technology, innovation, relationships, proficiencies, and subscribing to effective and efficient processes.
BSE Chief Executive Officer (CEO) Thapelo Tsheole told the media that the local bourse intends to achieve the strategic intent by pursuing the key strategic goals such as increasing profitability. He added that the BSE intends to improve its proficiency and overall financial performance to support its stature as a for profit entity. He is of the view that to achieve this, the organization requires diversified income streams, efficient cost management and the prevalence of a high performance culture.
Tsheole spoke of growth in listed securities and stated that the BSE intends to develop robust strategic initiatives to attract issuers, investors, products and to retain them. He added that this goal will be measured using the ratio of domestic market capitalization to gross domestic product and also using the number of listed securities.
“We intend to leverage technology, innovation and processes to increase market activity and liquidity, culminating in the increase in the number of issuers, investors, products, the diversity of the investor base and listed products as well as improved levels of engagement by intermediaries or brokers, improved levels of awareness and literacy by the investor base,” he said.
Tsheole further stated that the BSE intends to create an environment that promotes the competitiveness of the domestic capital market in relation to peer markets in order to support the growth ambitions. He believes that this will be achieved through the establishment of regulatory frameworks, and continual review, in order to foster an environment conducive for attracting new issuers and investors, and asset classes.
“These are signs of recovery in the domestic economy, but we remain cautious of pronouncing a conclusive recovery due to world events which could impact the domestic economy,” said Tsheole.
He further said the strategy map describes the BSE Corporate Strategy through the chosen strategic objectives and measures. He stated that the measures link together in a chain of cause and effect from the performance drivers in the learning and growth perspective all the way to the results in the financial perspective.
He is of the view that the ultimate objective at the top of the Strategy Map quantifies the achievement of the vision to become a “World Class Securities Exchange”. He revealed that it will be measured by the growth in the size in terms of market capitalization relative to the economy of Botswana, the number of listed securities, the vibrancy of the market in terms of liquidity, the BSE’s profitability and the extent of creating an enabling environment.
“Increasing market liquidity is the single most important success factor for this strategy as it underpins the others. This has the effect of reducing costs for all participants, making buying and selling easier, improving the discovery of prices, all of which improve market confidence and provide benefits for the economy as a whole,” Tsheole stated.
