New Look BBS Headquarters prepares to sprout at CBD
Correspondent | Friday June 19, 2020 14:49
The move to the CBD has been announced by the company’s long serving CEO Pius Molefe in the company’s latest financials that had been delayed in large part by migration to a new banking system as they prepared to operate as a commercial bank.
“We intend building a Head Office that will not only be easy on the eye architecturally but also give the BBS Limited brand the desired lift”, the CEO pledged, adding that the move is in line with their branding strategy that had already seen them opening new branches at Diphalane Mall , Palapye, last year, as well as the decision to relocate their BBS branch in Phikwe to a more visible, secure location in the main mall as part of improving BBS physical infrastructure so that it is fit for purpose in respect of the company’s infrastructure.
Molefe further promises a digitized, modern bank, “As part of our new products and services offering, it suffices to say that we are also fine-tuning a new digitilisation strategy to ensure that we set ourselves apart from competitors as far as possible in terms of our offering”.
Cell phone banking: “It is clear to us, for instance, that the cellphone has so much power in the hands of people, especially those in rural areas and those running small to micro and medium scale enterprises especially when they have digital bank accounts. Nonetheless, we believe that the digitilisation strategy will speak for itself when and after the new brand for the envisaged bank is launched”, Molefe pledged.
The delay in the release of the financials in 2018 had it’s own setbacks for BBS as trading at the Botswana Stock exchange as a public listed company had to be suspended, while last year the company voluntarily cancelled their banking license application with the view to resubmit later this year. “we are now updating the banking licence application with the latest financial results and will resubmit it once we have finalised the audit for the period ended December 2019. Its Annual General Meeting will be called for soon after the one for the period ended December 2018. I am confident that this time around there will be no need for us to recall the banking licence application and that, at the latest, by the second quarter of 2021 we should be operating as a commercial bank”, the BBS boss said in the commentary. Covid 19 Compliant: Botswana, and indeed the rest of world, was struck by
the coronavirus (“COVID-19”) which negatively affected the economy
significantly. His Excellency the President Dr. Mokgweetsi E.K. Masisi declared a state of emergency in order to curtail the spread of the pandemic. For their part BBS also put in place interventions to protect Staff, Customers and other Stakeholders.
The CEO said, among others they rotated Staff on weekly basis to avoid all of them potentially contracting the disease leading to a complete shutdown of the business. They also installed sanitisers and sick bays in all their premises, as well as effecting a social distancing policy in all the premises. “ We were regularly in touch with the health authorities for information on matters we were not clear on, made sure that all employees that had travelled to affected areas were quarantined for 14 days and
returned to work only upon issuance of a health clearance certificate, amongst
other interventions”.
While COVID-19 will not have an effect on these financials and those for the period ended December 2019, Molefe pointed out that its negative effect will come through in the financials for the period that will end in December 2020
Silver lining: While the company did not make profit for the reporting period, the bank’s return on average equity ratio improved from 17% in March 2018 to 19% in December 2018.
BBS maintain a strong capital base with a capital adequacy ratio of 28.40% for the period ended December 2018.
The liquid assets to total customer deposits ratio was 27% as at December 2018 much higher than the 10% limit set by the central bbank.
BBS also recorded an improvement in the Loans to Deposit ratio of 151% as at December 2018 from 177% in March 2018. This was due to the growth in the bank’s deposit balances. “We continued to work hard to increase our deposit base in order to reduce this ratio further and to meet the regulatory limit of 80%”, Molefe said.
The cost to income ratio is 111% compared to 67% in the previous financial year.
The bank anticipate a high cost to income ratio as they implement initiatives to transform the Company going forward, but this should improve in the medium term with the rollout and take-up of new products in a new banking environment.