From physical trading floors to tokenisation, Head of Listings & Trading Tsametse Mmolai on how discipline, mentorship and developmental regulation are turning the BSE into Africa’s next capital-raising hub (Blurb)
For a man who oversees the heartbeat of Botswana’s capital market, Tsametse Mmolai speaks with disarming calm about revolution.
As Head of Listings & Trading at the Botswana Stock Exchange (BSE), he is both gatekeeper and gardener, charged with safeguarding market integrity while coaxing liquidity, innovation and a new generation of issuers onto the bourse.
“Our mandate is to ensure that issuers are onboarded onto the Exchange in accordance with the regulations that safeguard the credibility of the market,” he says.
But the role, he explains, does not end at the listing bell. His team ensures that once onboarded, issuers live up to their ongoing obligations under the laws of the country and the listings requirements, while also onboarding brokers and dealers under the Members Rules and ensuring they advise and trade for the public in an ethical manner.
It is a delicate balance, exercised in close partnership with regulator, Non-Bank Financial Institutions Regulatory Authority (NBFIRA.)
“In cooperation with our Capital Markets Regulator, the NBFIRA, we apply these market rules with a developmental mindset, keeping in mind that for the country and its people to progress and not be left behind, for liquidity to improve, innovation has to be allowed to lead regulation,” Mmolai notes.
From Investment Accountant to Market Custodian
Mmolai’s own journey to the helm of Listings & Trading is a story of return and resolve.
“My first job out of university was as an Investment Accountant at Botswana Insurance Fund Management (Bifm), after which I took a detour from capital markets into the insurance sector through a stint as a Branch Manager with Metropolitan Life,” he recalls.
The detour was brief. The pull of the market was stronger.
“Eventually though I returned to capital markets by joining the BSE as a Listings and Trading Operations Officer in 2008, I have enjoyed the challenges and the impact from this sector as you can tell, and thus have settled here at BSE since, going through the ranks untill I was promoted to Head of Department in 2013.”
What he found in 2008 and what he leads today are two different worlds. When he joined, trading was still physical, the Exchange was a mutual organisation controlled by member brokers with a complicated governance structure, and client service turnaround times were, in his own words, “haphazard at best.”
Today, the transformation is profound. Settlement and depository are automated, trading is electronic, the Exchange is demutualised, and its corporate governance is harmonised with the World Federation of Exchanges.
“Now we are working on tokenisation and online order placement by retail clients,” he says. “If you spoke to our clients and asked them, knock on wood, we have outperformed ourselves year in year out. We are now implementing the 10Xby30 Strategy!”
Why Strict Rules Are a Selling Point
In a world where regulation is often seen as friction, Mmolai argues the opposite, that discipline is Botswana’s competitive edge.
“Issuers have told us that the reason they are happy to stay listed on our market is because we are disciplined in applying the rules fairly and consistently. It seems to me therefore that our strict compliance enforcement is a selling point,” he says.
That trust is nurtured, not imposed. The secret, he says, lies in consultation.
“We believe that the market rules are a living compact with the market participants and they are given an opportunity to review them on a regular basis and come up with suggestions. Our annual Requirements Refresher Workshops play a big part in this harmony.”
“Investors and the public in general rely on us to only list issuers that respect compliance and thus anyone that we list is able to receive capital from our investors as they have confidence in us.”
Building the Pipeline: From Elite Club to Inclusive Market
Perhaps Mmolai’s most telling shift came in 2018, when the BSE stopped waiting for companies to come to it.
“We decided that we needed to pursue an inclusive approach to increasing listings. We realised that in Botswana, like everywhere else, the majority of businesses are SME and growth levels,” he explains.
The answer was the Tshipidi Mentorship Programme. To date, it has 80 graduates, entrepreneurs learning to behave like compliant corporates long before they list.
“We became open to all, we stopped giving that elitist vibe so that everyone in the market is now feeling ever more comfortable to ask us how do I become part of the market? This has enriched the pipeline.”
It also helped dismantle stubborn myths.
“The biggest misconception is that listing has a high regulatory burden. Others believe it is prohibitively expensive, that it is only for 100-year-old elite companies, or for profitable companies only,” he says. “We host listings workshops to teach anyone who is having these questions, including special board sessions if requested. Having the Mentorship programme also opened the eyes of the participating entrepreneurs.”
Why The Surge Is Happening Now
So why is the BSE now experiencing a historically healthy pipeline? Mmolai points to a convergence of education and economics.
“Our sustained efforts over the years to educate local business people about this thing called public listing are paying off,” he says. “Banks are charging more for debt. Businesses have loaded up on enough debt and are now at a point where they need to raise equity capital. Some founders are also at a point where they are ready to release equity.”
Private equity, too, needs an exit. “Whilst private equity is still available in abundance, exits have to happen eventually and we have successfully presented ourselves as the ideal option for these types of exits.”
And leadership matters. “Both my Board Chairperson Neo Mooki and Chief Executive Officer (CEO) Aupa Monyatsi have taken deliberate strategic actions to convert the pipeline. It is clearly working.”
While he is quick to note that pipeline ownership sits with the Market and Product Development teams, he hints at the diversity coming — from re-insurance and fuel and lubricants to SMEs now daring to dream of a listing.
From Market Activity to National Prosperity
For Mmolai, a vibrant bourse is not an abstract metric. It is jobs, taxes, dividends and dignity.
“The level of activity on a Stock Exchange is generally a representation of the level of activity in a nation. With more activity on our market, we expect higher levels of job creation, the government will also be able to collect more taxes from the newly released liquidity, retail investors and pensioners will receive dividends and recognise capital growth as price discovery improves,” he says.
As a Self-Regulatory Organisation mandated by NBFIRA, he credits the regulator’s wisdom for allowing innovation. “A well regulated market will continue to deepen as it attracts more listings. A deep market mixed with positive government legislation will attract even more investors from across the world. More investors and issuers attract more jobs and tax revenues.”
That deepening, he argues, is central to Botswana’s diversification beyond diamonds.
“Our 10Xby30 Strategy aims to make the BSE a torchbearer for impact and our vision is to make our country the capital raising hub for Africa. If the capital markets sector grows significantly and we as a country become a serious alternative to Mauritius and South Africa for doing business in Africa, we will seriously start earning revenues from other sectors which are not diamond mining.”
Beyond Equities: Green Bonds, ETFs and the Mobile Investor
Innovation is already underway. Under 10Xby30, the BSE has introduced new products, but Mmolai is candid: products mean nothing without participants.
“It won’t matter how many products we as the regulator bring to the market if the participants do not stand up and implement them. We need participants to play the roles of sponsors, originators, market makers and arrangers,” he says.
The wish list is ambitious: Sustainability Bonds, Municipal Bonds, quotation on the Serala OTC Board, origination of Exchange Traded Funds, stabilising the Botswana Mercantile Exchange, a BSE Mobile Trading App, and establishing the Motheo National SME Fund of Funds.
The Legacy He Wants to Leave
When asked about legacy, Mmolai returns to where it all began; the small business.
“The Tshipidi Mentorship Programme showed us that what we really need to do as a country is to pay attention to our SMEs and not only provide them with platforms for raising capital but also give them serious business facilitation systems that will ensure that they become sustainable and investible businesses, not just tenderpreneurships,” he reflects.
“I hope that all the initiatives that we are working on will stabilise in 5 years and thus our quoted and listed companies will have a deep pool of capital from ideation all the way to the growth stages of their life cycle.”
His final measure of success is unequivocally national.
“When I see the BSE and Botswana in general being the capital raising Hub of Africa, then our work will be fulfilled.”
