The Botswana Stock Exchange (BSE) has recently become an affiliate of the World Federation of Exchanges (WFE) following approval by the WFE board of directors.
In a press release issued Monday, the BSE stated that the approval was made at the WFE meeting on June 22, 2016, following a briefing by the BSE on the status of the exchange.
It said the BSE’s application to WFE was part of its internationalisation strategy that aims to position the BSE as one of the leading stock exchanges in Africa.
The WFE represents 63 regulated exchanges across the world and acts on behalf of a total of 99 organisations including affiliate members and clearing houses.
“The BSE is an important institution in both its size relative to the economy and its role in promoting the creation and flow of investment capital in Botswana. We are honoured to be accepted as an Affiliate Exchange of the WFE. This relationship with the WFE is a cornerstone of the BSE’s vision of becoming the leading exchange in Africa. It is in our best interest to align with international best practice in the global securities and exchange industry and adapt to the evolving and fast changing global investment environment,” said Thapelo Tsheole, chief executive officer of the BSE.
He added that the BSE’s affiliation with the WFE will help them promote the integrity of the domestic capital market and align their capital market standards with international best practice.
“We intend to utilise our affiliation with the WFE to position the BSE as the ideal investment destination leveraging on Botswana’s competitive advantages and to lure global fund managers and sovereign wealth funds with frontier and emerging market investment strategies,” he said.
The BSE’s status as an affiliate exchange of the WFE initiates an interactive informational connection between the BSE and the WFE.
Through this affiliation, the BSE will benefit from participation in the WFE workshops, events, annual meetings, research, capital markets statistics and studies that provide useful support to the BSE’s development. It will also promote the dissemination of BSE information and market statistics through the WFE network across the world and hence benefit from publicity and integrity of such a network.
It is an opportunity for the BSE to benefit from knowledge transfer and expertise sharing in virtually every aspect of the capital market: the technical, the commercial, the legal and the economic aspects.
The BSE is a member of the African Securities Exchanges Association (ASEA) and the Committee of SADC Stock Exchanges (CoSSE). The BSE is also a partner Exchange in the United Nations Sustainable Stock Exchanges Initiative (SSE) which it joined in April 2016.
Read Botswana Stock Exchange Profile.
