The former deputy governor at Bank of Botswana – Dr Keith Jefferis this week made a shock reemergence at the government enclave.
Dr Jefferis has been named as the new Senior Policy Advisor replacing Dr. Wilfred Mandlebe who has since been promoted to the position of Permanent Secretary.
Before retracing his footsteps to government enclave, Dr Jefferis was managing his economic firm – Econsult Botswana.
Dr Jefferis has not just earned a lucrative job at government but has been named amongst shareholders of Growmine Proprietary Limited which was named the preferred bidder to be the operator of the Botswana National Lottery.
The announcement marked an end to a nasty chapter of the hotly contested bidding process in which one of the bidders had interdicted an initial announcement that was planned for March, citing irregularities.
GrowMine Africa, the company that has now been chosen to run the lottery is a consortium of well-known entrepreneurs. The company’s main shareholder is Sefalana Group. While he has since decided to resign from the Sefalana board, Dr Jefferies remains a shareholder at the Botswana Stock Exchange quoted company that plies its trade in fast moving consumable goods (FMCG).
Minister of Finance and Economic Development Dr Thapelo Matsheka, on Friday confirmed Dr Jefferis’ appointment and said that he comes in at a critical time when they are dealing with the effects of Covid 19.
“He was recruited as an outcome of the sterling work, he did with NDP 11 midterm review term review team. He is an additional professional resource at the MFED,” said Matsheka.
Jefferis has previously worked as a Senior Research Fellow at the Botswana Institute of Development Policy Analysis (BIDPA) and as an academic lecturing and researching in economics at universities in Botswana and the United Kingdom. He is accredited to the Technical Assistance Experts Register of the IMF’s Monetary and Financial Systems Department.
