Bank Gaborone Injects P1 Billion Into Debswana’s CEEP

The bank had initially pledged P200 million towards the Debswana CEEP programme, to financially enable contractors and suppliers of the mining giant. This, according to Mr. Khalala Mokefane Head Wholesale Banking at Bank Gaborone, was the bank’s initiative of supporting both the client being Debswana and the citizen partners of the programme as part of the bank’s journey in growing the Botswana economy. “This partnership comes as a deliberate commitment from the partners to drive the creation of opportunities for citizen suppliers, and is thus our contribution to the socio-economic development of Batswana by supporting and empowering citizen-owned SMEs. We are both excited and proud to be a part of this trailblazing initiative, and believe it will pivot the lives of Batswana significantly shortly,” he said

Bank Gaborone has successfully funded clients offering different services to the mine from core mining to other support services. The bank has also supported about 4 large drilling contractors at Debswana. Mr MOKEFANE said they have also recently on-boarded large contractors in other services such as slope support and tyre management. As per the last CEEP reporting, Bank Gaborone had financed 27 percent of the P800 million utilized in the last financial year showing the true commitment of the bank to the programme. “We have also financed SME start-ups who ordinarily carry higher risk and have ensured we not only finance but we also give coaching especially in cash flow management,” he added. The bank has always been a major player in the SME sector but COVID-19 and changes in the economy affected its risk appetite to the sector. However, the backing of Debswana changed the whole landscape, and Mr MOKEFANE revealed that they have revised their appetite. He added that the enthusiasm shown from Debswana to assist these enterprises, backed by Enterprise Development within the CEEP gave the bank confidence to contribute to the country’s economic development. Without Debswana committing to being part of these agreements, he said this would not have been possible. “We note that as part of our commitment we have a turnaround time commitment for our CEEP customer due to the time sensitivity of the nature of their business and potential impact on the production at the mines,” he stated.

Bank Gaborone has dedicated personnel covering the CEEP programme who work to ensure that these clients are promptly assisted and intervene where there are stumbling blocks in clients accessing funding through the bank and are a liaison with Debswana. The bank has also committed to visiting the different project teams and mines to ensure that we stay close to clients and project owners for a better management of the programme. Speaking about the value of the CEEP financing so far as well as the performance of the CEEP Business partners, Mr MOKEFANE said P154 374 489 has been disbursed as at 31 July 2022 for the new financial year. In total since inception and signing the MOU with Debswana, they have financed P189 million. “The programme has assisted the bank with acquisition of new clients with quality performance, CEEP has significantly grown our commercial loan book.

This has also brought awareness to the market of the capabilities that Bank Gaborone has to assist the sector and also grown the loan book as well as increased transaction business for the bank. The Relationship Management team is also developing new skill sets in core-mining and Mining Finance, which will enable them to support the clients by solutioning for their needs; Amongst others gaining deeper appreciation for project financing concepts, with particular attention to mining and minerals, managing the various moving parts inherent in the financing of mining related ventures,” he added.