Barclays continues to spread wings

LEKOPANYE MOOKETSI
Correspondent | Friday October 22, 2010 00:00

 

The ceremony was held at the Grand Palm's Gaborone International Convention Centre (GICC).

UK-based chief executive of Global Retail Banking, Antony Jenkins, was among several special guests who attended the ceremony. He was accompanied by other top executives of Barclays from the UK and the region.

'Jenkins, together with other senior executives within Barclays, is in Botswana to celebrate the 60th anniversary of Barclays business in Botswana,' said the head of Barclays Botswana's Corporate Affairs, Esther Norris.

'Barclays is proud to have had such a long and fruitful relationship with the Botswana community. The presence of the leadership is a testament to how important Barclays business is in Africa.

'The Barclays team will also visit Barclays businesses in Zambia, Tanzania and Uganda to celebrate other significant milestones, participate in colleague engagement and meet with distinguished officials, customers and community leaders.' Speaking at the ceremony, Jenkins said internationally, Barclays is over 300 years old. He said during this period, has survived wars and financial crises.

Jenkins said the focus of the bank has always been to put the customer at the heart of everything they do.  Barclays Bank Botswana signifies the characteristics of their brand, he added. 

Jenkins revealed that in Botswana, the bank has employed 1, 200 people, saying they are proud of the franchise that has been built in Botswana. When in the country, they visited some of the social responsibility projects that the bank has undertaken.

The Chairman of the Barclays board, Rizwan Desai, said the bank is represented in every corner of the country. Desai described Barclays as an 'appealing bank' and  'the bank of choice' in Botswana.

Indeed, Barclays has become synonymous with banking in the country. Who can forget the blue savings books of the olden days? There were no computers then, and all transactions were recorded manually in the savings book.  

When the book was full, the customer was issued with another one. Today's fully computerised systems are a far cry from that manual modus operandi. Electronic cards have replaced the savings book. Barclays opened its first branch in 'Bechuanaland' in Lobatse in 1950.

This was followed by a sub-branch in Francistown three years later, which upgraded to a full branch the following year, controlled by the head office in South Africa. Another agency was opened in Ghanzi in 1960. The Ghanzi agency was initially operated from Gobabis in the then South West Africa (Namibia). Its operations were later transferred to Lobatse.

Ghanzi became the first agency in Southern Africa to be served by chartered flight. Barclays officials from Lobatse would fly to Ghanzi once a week.

Barclays remained the only bank operating in Ghanzi - now Gantsi - through to the 1980s. The bank opened a permanent branch which was manned by two tellers and a manager there in the mid-1980s.