Botswana Stock Exchange (BSE) and Botswana Development Corporation (BDC) have formalised a partnership aimed at building a credible pipeline of BDC-backed businesses ready for public listing.
The two entities signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU), which brought together management teams of both institutions, including BSE Chief Executive Officer Aupa Monyatsi and BDC Managing Director Oteng Keabetswe.
The MoU sets out a framework for collaboration across several strategic areas, including the development of listing and capital-raising pathways for BDC investee companies, joint investment-readiness and capacity-building programmes, and the promotion of equity and debt market instruments.
A key area of collaboration will be the exploration of an Infrastructure Fund to mobilise long-term institutional and private capital towards bankable infrastructure projects in Botswana and, where appropriate, the wider region.
The MoU also provides for joint market research and intelligence-sharing, positioning both institutions to identify and prepare mature businesses across manufacturing, property, agribusiness, tourism and services for eventual participation in the public market.
A key area of collaboration will be the exploration of an Infrastructure Fund to mobilise long-term institutional and private capital towards bankable infrastructure projects in Botswana and, where appropriate, the wider region.
The MoU also provides for joint market research and intelligence-sharing, positioning both institutions to identify and prepare mature businesses across manufacturing, property, agribusiness, tourism and services for eventual participation in the public market.
Monyatsi described the agreement as one that speaks directly to all five pillars of BSE’s 10X by 2030 strategy, touching on talent development, internationalisation, technology modernization, product innovation, and the Exchange’s broader purpose of being a force for good.
He noted that the partnership between the two state-linked institutions reflects complementary rather than competing mandates, with BDC building and growing companies while BSE provides the platform for those companies to raise capital publicly.
Keabetswe, for his part, welcomed the agreement on behalf of BDC, underscoring the significance of the partnership for the Corporation’s investee companies and speaking to the broader goal of citizen economic empowerment, noting that the collaboration would open the door for ordinary Batswana to own a stake in businesses that BDC has nurtured from an early stage, turning decades of development finance into shared, tangible wealth for citizens.
The two parastatals have also committed to translating the agreement into concrete outcomes in the coming months, with the immediate focus on identifying and preparing candidate companies for the listings pipeline.
Beyond the transactions themselves, the partnership is expected to deliver lasting impact for Botswana’s economy, supporting job creation and preservation within newly listed enterprises, channeling household savings into productive, citizen-owned growth, and contributing to the country’s broader economic diversification agenda.