Opening Capital Markets to all Batswana

Over the past decade at the Botswana Stock Exchange, Thapelo Tebogo Moribame has helped transform the institution from an exclusive preserve for corporate elites into a more accessible platform for national wealth creation.

When Moribame joined the Botswana Stock Exchange (BSE) as Head of Market Development in August 2016, she brought with her a strong academic foundation in economics. She holds a Master of Commerce in Economics from Stellenbosch University and completed international trade training in Tokyo, giving her a firm understanding of how global economies function. Her career since then has turned that academic knowledge into a deep commitment to financial inclusion.

Her early experience at the Local Enterprise Authority (LEA) introduced her to the realities of market competition and business development. There, she saw first-hand the challenges facing small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), including limited access to capital, weak corporate governance, and a lack of market knowledge and resources.

Later, as Marketing Manager at Air Botswana, she developed a sharper commercial perspective and learned to operate in a demanding, competitive environment. Together, these experiences shaped her central conviction: capital markets should drive broad economic participation, not serve as isolated institutions for a select few.

Her work has earned international recognition. In 2025, the World Federation of Exchanges named Moribame one of its Top 20 Women Leaders globally, honouring her efforts to broaden access to capital. For Moribame, the accolade represents a collective achievement for her team and a meaningful sign of progress within Botswana’s financial sector.

A central ambition of the BSE’s 10X by 2030 strategy is to position Gaborone as Africa’s leading capital-raising hub. To help achieve this goal, Moribame has focused on changing how local businesses view the stock exchange. For mature, privately owned companies, she presents listing as a compelling alternative to traditional bank financing.

Listing, she explains, offers much more than an immediate injection of capital. It can provide an objective market valuation that reflects a company’s true worth, increase shareholder liquidity, support transparent family succession planning, and strengthen corporate credibility through rigorous disclosure requirements.

The BSE has also introduced a progressive, multi-tiered listing structure to make the journey more manageable. Rather than requiring companies to meet the demands of the Main Board immediately, the exchange gives them opportunities to grow through a series of stages.

“Companies can begin their journey on the Serala Over-the-Counter (OTC) Board, which functions as an institutional incubator,” Moribame said. “From there, growing enterprises can advance to the Tshipidi SME Board, transition to the Venture Capital Board, and eventually qualify for the Main Board.”

The Tshipidi Mentorship Programme forms the foundation of this enterprise pipeline. It helps small businesses bridge the gap towards corporatisation by providing training in financial reporting, corporate governance, and commercial law.

“To date, 79 companies have completed the mentorship programme,” Moribame said. “Even those that decide not to list emerge better structured and more attractive to external financiers.”

A strategic partnership with Stanbic Bank has also helped reduce the cost of entering the market by temporarily waiving listing fees for first-time SME listings.

On the international front, Moribame promotes Gaborone as a competitive and stable investment destination. She highlights Botswana’s zero exchange controls, which allow capital, dividends, and investment proceeds to move freely across borders. She also points to the country’s decades of uninterrupted democracy, strong rule of law, and substantial domestic liquidity.

Botswana’s large pension funds are actively seeking high-quality local investment opportunities, creating an important source of demand for listed instruments.

“This combination has attracted foreign listings from the United Kingdom, Canada, and Australia across the financial services, mining, and energy sectors,” she said. “The exchange’s credibility is further strengthened by its recognition from His Majesty’s Revenue and Customs in the United Kingdom, which simplifies investment for British institutions.”

Moribame’s work extends well beyond Botswana’s borders. She serves on the United Nations Advisory Group on SMEs and the African Securities Exchanges Association’s Policy Working Group. These roles allow her to contribute to international policy discussions while ensuring that global regulatory standards remain relevant to Botswana’s economic realities.

The BSE is also pursuing regional and global integration through strategic partnerships. Moribame’s team is working with the Gaborone City Council to explore the use of municipal bonds to finance urban infrastructure. At the same time, the exchange is partnering with the Botswana Development Corporation to help transition state-backed enterprises towards public markets.

Perhaps the greatest challenge of Moribame’s decade at the BSE has been dismantling the perception that the stock exchange is only for wealthy investors and large corporations. To increase retail participation, her team has taken financial literacy campaigns directly into communities, schools, universities, government offices, agricultural expos, and traditional savings groups known as metshelo.

The exchange now uses accessible language to explain everyday investment opportunities in shares, bonds, and exchange-traded funds. To help bridge the digital and knowledge gaps, the BSE and Stanbic Bank launched a stock market simulator that allows students and first-time investors to practise trading without risking real money.

As part of its ongoing technology modernisation programme, the exchange is preparing to launch a dedicated mobile trading platform and a Retail Investor Module. These tools will give ordinary citizens the ability to manage portfolios and buy shares directly from their mobile phones.

For Moribame, this digital transformation represents more than a technological upgrade. It is the next step in a decade-long effort to make Botswana’s capital markets more open, practical, and relevant to every ambitious Motswana.

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