BSE schedules series of activities for 2022
Botswana Stock Exchange ( BSE) anticipates more activity from investors this year, driven by technology tools in the stock market.
BSE Chief Executive Officer, Thapelo Tsheole said they intend to launch the new CSD system, new ATS and a stock market simulator in 2022, and these will transform the landscape in major ways such as investor activity, introduction of new services and products, participation across various products, the reach of the market and overall education levels about the stock market.
Tsheole said in the near future BSE intends to complete the process of demutualisation by undertaking a self- listing of BSE Limited on the BSE platform. “This milestone is expected to enhance foreign investor and issuer trust on the organisation, and complements our internationalisation strategy where we intend to aggressively move into the global community to attract issuers and investors. Considering this vaccine- powered economic recovery, but also remaining cognisant of the risks in the short to medium term, we projected an enabling environment that would be very supportive of our new 2022 – 2026 strategy.”
In 2021, BSE recorded improved market performance with the number of listed instruments increasing to 80 from 79 in 2020, with a 100 percent increase in the number of ETFs. Total turnover also increased to P4.5 billion from P3.6 billion in 2020 while average daily turnover across all instruments rose by 25 percent, from P14.5 million to P18.1 million.
According to the BSE annual market report, the domestic equity market in particular has experienced remarkable recovery with the average daily turnover rising almost three fold from P2.8 million a day to P7.3 million a day. “This was mainly attributable to the record single day turnover of P1.1billion due to the acquisition of BancABC Botswana Limited by Access Bank Limited.”
Despite the negative challenges brought by Covid 19 during the year, the BSE did not experience any disruption in market operations and did not encounter any adverse issues of compliance on account of the pandemic. “The BSE managed to set new records two of which are the highest single day turnover and the two ETFs being listed in one day as well as a total of three ETFs being listed in any given year. These are new milestones in the history of the BSE and we intend to build on these to improve the status of the market,” reads the report.
During the year, BSE commenced the formulation of a new five year strategic plan ( 2022- 2026) that seeks to make the BSE a world class securities exchange, particularly in the frontier markets space. The strategy seeks to explore new ways of promoting financial self- sufficiency, new strategies to improve liquidity, policy advocacy, and build a high performance organisation, among others.