We have a “Lead Bank” scheme under which there is a designated commercial bank identified for each of the over 600 districts in the country with responsibility for ensuring implementation of a district credit plan that contains indicative targets for flow of credit to sectors of the economy that banks may neglect.
There is considerable work to be done if we are to develop a truly world class financial sector in Botswana. To put this in perspective, while the ABSA Index ranks Botswana second in Africa, in the latest update of the World Economic Forum Global Competitiveness Index, the country’s financial sector is ranked only 69th out of 140 countries.