The buck that refuses to be passed

Approximately seven years ago, minimum wage earners were on an unnatural high. Barclays Bank Botswana, in a bid to corner the raging appetite for loans during the boom years before the recession, lowered its thresholds and offered credit cards to workers earning as little as P750 per month.

At the time, the Bank justified its looser risk policy by arguing that minimum wagers needed to be mainstreamed into the financial sector and many critics appeared won over. Except one leading microlender, perhaps stung by the loss of market share due to Barclays’ under-reaching.