President Mokgwetsi Masisi will be the guest speaker at this year’s graduation ceremony of Botswana Stock Exchange (BSE) Tshipidi Mentorship Program Graduation Ceremony to be held on the 27th September 2023.
According to a statement from the bourse, the finance minister, Peggy Serame will also be in attendance.
“The Tshipidi Mentorship Program is a strategic initiative established by the BSE in 2019 to educate and sensitise the private sector on the listings value proposition and process. In addition, this Program was established to address the lack of corporatization from SMEs with aspirations of accessing equity or debt finance from the market. Hence, it serves as a way of grooming companies that could potentially raise capital, improve governance and leverage from the BSE as a springboard for growth,” said the BSE which is led by Thapelo Tsheole.
The objective of the Program is to provide practical training through a comprehensive and interactive program that covers the key themes necessary to prepare and position a company to list on the BSE. “This training is offered by industry experts (advisors in the listings ecosystem) with regards to key elements of corporatization, capital structure, financial reporting, commercial law, listing requirements and corporate governance. In terms of facilitation, the TMP is conducted over a three (3) months period, with each month allocated a single day of facilitation,” said BSE which has announced an ambitious target of reach P1 trillion in market capitalisation.
Commenting at a previous session of TMP, Tsheole said: “As a strategy to support SME access to finance and attract listings, the BSE has resolved to set up a mentorship program to corporatize and acclimatize in order to ultimately list on the BSE. Since inception, this Program has grown in popularity as many business owners seek to capacitate themselves with key learnings necessary to position their companies to raise capital through the public market. In due time, we hope to reap the rewards of this exercise by paving the way for more issuances in our local capital markets, and thus, contribute towards the development of Botswana’s private sector.”
Since the establishment of the Program, the BSE has hosted a total of sixty (60) companies - seventeen (17) companies in 2019, eleven (11) companies in 2021, twenty (20) companies in 2022 and thirteen (13) companies in 2023. These companies represent a host of sectors that have included energy, financial services, property, mining, manufacturing, agriculture, education, ICT, retail, amongst others.
