The Botswana Stock Exchange (BSE) is going sustainable.

It has announced that it has listed its first sustainable bond. The BWP47.4 million bond was listed on 11 January by Absa Bank Botswana, reports Africa Business Communities.

Calling the listing ‘historic’, BSE CEO Thapelo Tsheole said that after ‘introducing the listing requirements for sustainable bonds, extensively building capacity around these instruments and introducing the fee incentives, we have introduced a new Sustainable Bonds Segment where green, social, sustainability and sustainability-linked bonds can be listed to raise funds for sustainable development’.

He said the fee incentives for listing sustainable bonds – a 25% discount on initial listing fees and annual sustaining fees – were integral to an improvement in Botswana’s ranking in the Absa Africa Financial Markets Index 2023 from eighth in 2022 to sixth in 2023.

FSD Africa, under the SADC Green Bond Programme, provided technical assistance on the project, while Absa took the lead.

16 January 2024
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