Ramasedi takes over at NBFIRA

Brian Benza
Staff Writer | Thursday April 1, 2010 00:00

 

A statement released by the Ministry of Finance says the former National Development Bank boss will be at the helm of the NBFIRA for a period of five years.

'Members of the public are hereby informed that the Minister of Finance and Development Planning, has appointed Oaitse Ramasedi as Chief Executive Officer of the Non-Bank Financial Institutions Regulatory Authority (NBFIRA).

'This appointment is in accordance with the provisions of Section 12 (1) of the Non-Bank Financial Institutions Regulatory Authority Act (Cap 46:08), (the Act) and Presidential Directive CAB 8(A)/2010,' read the statement.

Ramasedi joined NBFIRA in September 2009 as the Deputy Chief Executive Officer after spending nine years with NDB. He was subsequently appointed the Acting Chief Executive Officer in October 2009 following the unceremonious resignation of Canadian Robert Hobart from NBFIRA.

'We welcome him and trust that he will enjoy, as well as add value to the development of Botswana's regulatory environment,' added the Statement.

It was always widely believed in the industry that Ramasedi was 'timely' roped in to understudy Hobart and would take over when the Canadian left the authority.

As Ramasedi finally takes over at NBFIRA, his former employer NDB has also appointed a substantive CEO to replace him. As revealed by Business Week last week, CEDA Deputy CEO (operation) Lorato Morapedi will assume the position of CEO at NDB from May this year.

At NBFIRA Ramasedi will be tasked with regulating asset managers and micro-lenders because they are not under the ambit of the Banking Act. It will also keep an eye on pension and provident fund administrators, custodians, investment advisors and security dealers.

Significantly, NBFIRA will have to formulate prudential regulations to ensure that currently less regulated financial institutions do not cause mayhem in the financial market.

Prudential regulations would ensure that Botswana registered non-bank financial institutions work according to internationally-accepted standards by ensuring that they were run by people with prudential skills, subscribed to good corporate governance, met the set capital and liquidity requirements and used prescribed financial instruments and off-balance sheet transactions, among others.

Recently NBFIRA has been coming down on insurance brokers and agents who are straying out of the Insurance Act by using unregistered brokers with the latest one being Omega Insurance who had their licence cancelled effective February 2010 due to various contraventions of the provisions of the insurance Act.