MEFMI trains Bank of Botswana on Corporate Governance and Bank Licensing

Corporate governance plays a critical role in the success or failure of banking institutions. As custodians of public funds, the integrity and professionalism of the management of banking institutions must be beyond reproach. High levels of good corporate governance entrench public confidence in the banking system.

As a supervisory authority, the Bank of Botswana (BoB) is tasked with maintaining financial sector integrity and stability. To fulfil this mandate, BoB must have a robust mechanism for assessing banking licence applications and mergers and acquisitions as well as put in place measures to engender global best practices in corporate governance at its supervised entities. These measures will assist BoB to exercise sufficient oversight of the governance of the supervised institutions and protect the sector from unscrupulous elements that may seek to enter the banking business for the wrong reasons.

As part of its support, MEFMI conducted an in-country workshop on Corporate Governance and Bank Licensing for staff of BoB from 8 to 12 November 2021. The workshop, which focused on the practical assessment of corporate governance and bank licence applications, enhanced participants’ capacity to assess bank licence applications, onboarding of technical partners, mergers and acquisitions as well as corporate governance practices.

A total of 13 officials (4 male and 9 female) attended the training. It is expected that the officials will use the acquired knowledge to improve the Bank’s licensing process and oversight of corporate governance in its supervised entities. In addition, the officials are expected to share the acquired knowledge with their colleagues who could not take part in the training.

The workshop was facilitated by Mr. Apollo Obbo, a Bank Supervision Expert and MEFMI Graduate Fellows Ms. Miriam Musaali and Mr. Ruzayi Chiviri.

Prepared by Noel Mahombera