Government has appointed the founding Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of Bramer Life Insurance and former Botswana Insurance Holdings Limited Group (BIHL) CEO Reginah Sikalesele-Vaka as the Botswana Stock Exchange (BSE) new chairperson. She takes over from Patrick O’Flaherty.
Her immediate role as the board chairperson is mainly to provide leadership of the board at the country’s national stock exchange which is given the responsibility to operate and regulate equity and the fixed interest security market.
The Main Committee of the BSE presently consists of herself Sikalesele-Vaka herself, Gregory Matsake who is deputy chairperson, Goitseone Kgaodi as the treasurer, Patrick O’Flaherty, Martin Makgatlhe, Oosi Lemo, Elaina Gonsalves, Professor John Kiggundu, and Nelson Letshwene.
Sikalesele-Vaka is considered a visionary senior executive with a 25-year career that showcases advancement in the legal and financial services industry. She served as a board director in six of the top-10 listed companies on the BSE domestic market.
She also successfully established MVA and establishing an exemplary business model for MVA Fund which grew its asset base tenfold from U$$ 10 million to U$$110 million in six years, making it a regional example.
A years ago, Sikalesele-Vaka also served as Group CEO of BIHL, a regional holding financial services company with assets of U$$1.8 billion, where she provided visionary leadership for the group of financial services subsidiaries with a key focus on establishing an operational model and developing and implementing the overall strategy for the BIHL Group.
The BSE newly appointed board chairperson also served as the CEO of Botswana Life Insurance Company, the largest life insurance company in Botswana and subsidiary of BIHL.
She is said to have set strategic direction, driving performance indicators with the board while serving as principal ambassador, profiling and positioning the company in community.
Sikalesele-Vaka holds Bachelor of Laws Degree from the University of Botswana.
BSE stated that the other changes to the Main Committee include the appointments of Oosi Lemo, Martin Makgatlhe and Nelson Letshwene in the place of Kabelo Mohohlo and Iponeng Sennanyana who retired.
Meanwhile, when contacted by Sunday Standard on an update of the amendments of the BSE listing rules that are on-going, the BSE Deputy Chief Executive Officer Thapelo Tsheole said: “We are presently reviewing comments from the stakeholders and preparing how we incorporate them in the listing requirements amendments.”
Tsheole added that after that, they will be then presented to the BSE main committee for comments and approval and finally taken to the Non-Banking Financial Regulatory Authority (NBFIRA) for approval before implementaion.
