Publicly listed on the Botswana Stock Exchange, ABSA Bank Botswana is transforming Botswana’s digital banking sector and supporting the Southern African country to diversify its economy.
“Botswana has maintained a triple-A rating in credit for many years, which many countries can only aspire to get.” – Keabetswe Pheko-Moshagane, Managing Director of ABSA Bank Botswana
Reimagining the way business owners operate across Botswana, ABSA Bank introduced Mobi Tap in 2023, a software application that turns smartphones into point-of-sale machines to accept card payments. This means a simple tap on the phone to complete transactions effortlessly. The initiative aims to support the growth of small enterprises, businesses, and entrepreneurs, as the bank plans to broaden the software application across different sectors. “I would say we have successfully achieved our target when every taxi driver in the country can just tap their phones
for transactions,” says Keabetswe Pheko-Moshagane, Managing Director of ABSA Bank Botswana. The bank aims to reach all merchants in urban and rural areas, from street vendors to taxi drivers, to create a cashless society through an affordable digital payment system.
Evolving into a large financial services company, ABSA Bank emerged in Botswana’s banking industry in 1950. The bank is currently engaged in supporting Botswana develop its capital market with a focus on the country’s pension fund. “We have seen our government taking an initiative to repatriate the pension fund, increasing the threshold that is sitting in the country from the current 30% compared to the 70% offshore. To facilitate the economy and create liquidity in the market, we will, in a phased approach, see that increasing up to 50%. We are designing different instruments that can facilitate the investments of these funds as they come back into the country,” says Pheko-Moshagane.
Botswana largely relies on the extraction of diamonds for foreign exchange earnings and its government revenue. As the nation seeks to diversify its economy to other potential sectors, ABSA has devised key support areas to realize this target, including providing access to finance to other sectors, human capital development, and support to SMEs. “The important question is: how do we build the right credit appetite into other sectors beyond diamond? We have been the pioneers of value chain financing through a product called Enterprise Supply Development. We have disbursed over a billion pula to our SMEs, specifically in the diamond sector. My vision is to take the same model and replicate it in other sectors as I rally behind the government’s vision of diversification,” says Moshagane.
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The bank’s F.G. Mogae Scholarship, named after the late Botswanan President, aspires to increase the nation’s human capital in various industries.
Perhaps one of the most unique services of ABSA Bank is its financing model that pivots from traditional lending, supporting SMEs who are often challenged with a lack of financial resources. “Commercial banks request SMEs to present a financial statement to secure a loan. We would rather look at the potential SMEs have to access the market. If they show a case that they’ve got a market that is ready to undertake their product, we will finance them,” says Moshagane. Beyond financial resources, the bank focuses on providing value addition to SMEs through training on topics ranging from strategies to market products to navigating tax obligations.
ABSA Bank invariably follows a self-espoused approach to corporate social responsibility, one that resonates with the age-old adage of ‘teaching a man to fish’. “We have launched a product called ‘SHE Account’ for women entrepreneurs, which stands for See, Hear, Empowered. The account offers training in how to run businesses, free access to an office-like setup in one of our service centers, and access to our Relationship Managers (RMs) that help entrepreneurs build their business case up until they can access finance,” says Moshagane. The bank also prioritizes financing initiatives that have the potential to influence positive social change and environmental sustainability.
Botswana’s economic and political stability as well as its global rating in the banking industry prompts investment. “Botswana has maintained a triple-A rating in credit for many years, which many countries can only aspire to get,” says Moshagane, reflecting on the nation’s stability in finance management and robust infrastructure as some of the opportunities for investors. “We are here to empower Africa’s tomorrow together, one story at a time. Your story matters, and we want to help write every chapter with you. That is why you should partner with ABSA.”
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