Moses D Pelaelo: Keynote speech at the opening of the Absa Bank Botswana Limited's Shakawe Branch

Keynote speech by Mr Moses D Pelaelo, Governor of the Bank of Botswana, at the official opening of the Shakawe Branch of Absa Bank Botswana Limited (Absa Bank), Shakawe, 3 February 2022.

The views expressed in this speech are those of the speaker and not the view of the BIS.

Central bank speech  | 
10 February 2022
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 |  12 pages

Director of Ceremonies, Distinguished Ladies and Gentlemen, it is a great pleasure and, indeed, an honour for me to have been invited to be part of this evening's ceremony marking the official opening and launch of the Shakawe Branch of Absa Bank Botswana Limited (Absa Bank). For the reasons that should be obvious to many, this is an invitation that the Head of Banking Supervision Department, Mr Godfrey Ngidi and I could not decline. Therefore, my colleagues and I would like to thank you, the Managing Director and, through you, the Board of Absa Bank for inviting us to join you and the people of Shakawe on the occasion of the official opening of this beautiful branch.

Director of Ceremonies, let me indicate, at the outset, that today's event, is of major significance in a myriad of ways. First and foremost, I can imagine that it responds to a major aspiration of the people of the North West region of Botswana, the Okavango Sub-District in particular, which has been and continues to be comparatively underbanked, even if acknowledging that Absa Bank has three branches and eight ATMs in the North West District; second, the opportunity to project the potential economic benefits emanating from broadening of access to financial services in this region and, third and more broadly, what Absa has done is aligned to public policy objectives of growing a more inclusive financial sector. As many of us would be aware, the Okavango region is an important hub for Botswana tourism activity, encompassing linkages with the global economy, with wide geographical coverage and, therefore, large distances between any concentration of facilities and service points. Furthermore, it has the potential and conditions to make leaps in economic activity; thus, in some way contributing to the rates of economic growth needed to propel the Botswana economy to high-income status by 2036.