Vice President and Minister of Finance, Ndaba Gaolathe has urged for the development of inclusive financial products and regulatory frameworks that recognise and amplify metshelo, community-based savings groups.
He said this will help turn metshelo and similar initiatives into instruments of rural transformation, women’s empowerment, and national resilience.
Ndaba was speaking at the 48th Committee of Insurance, Securities and Non-Banking Financial Authorities (CISNA) Annual General Meeting held in Maun this week.
In his plea, Ndaba attested to the transformative power of these community financial systems.
“At year’s end, profits are shared, lives are uplifted. Homes are built. Children are sent to school. Small businesses are born. Families are rescued from hardship through short-term credit. What we witness here is not informal finance — it is community innovation in its purest form,” he emphasized
Ndaba said this is where their collective responsibility as regulators and policymakers becomes most urgent and most noble in finding ways to nurture, protect, and scale these homegrown solutions.
“The challenge before us – and indeed the opportunity – is to bridge the world of high finance with the world of community trust. To allow policy to learn from practice, and innovation to grow from tradition. That, ultimately, is how we will make financial inclusion not just a goal, but a lived reality for every Motswana, and every citizen across our region,” advised the Vice President.
He stressed the need for a collective responsibility to ensure that women, youth, and small enterprises are not spectators in this evolving financial landscape but central players. In this pursuit, the vice president reiterated the need to draw inspiration from the already existing metshelo which are run largely by women across the country.
“They are a form of organic financial governance — simple, inclusive, yet remarkably efficient. Month after month, these women contribute to a shared fund, managed transparently by a trusted treasurer. They lend to one another, applying rules that are clear, fair, and respected. They know their clients. They understand risk. They practice due diligence instinctively. They do not merely circulate money — they circulate trust, opportunity, and dignity.”
Meanwhile, Ndaba noted that Government, through the Botswana Economic Transformation Programme (BETP) has taken a deliberate and strategic decision to unlock growth and competitiveness by creating a more agile, innovation-friendly regulatory environment.
He indicated that as government they recognise that the strength of financial ecosystem lies not only in the robustness of frameworks but in their capacity to empower enterprise, to inspire innovation, and to include those who have long remained at the margins of formal finance.
Hosted by the Non-Bank Financial Institutions Regulatory Authority (NBFIRA), the CISNA 48th Bi-Annual meeting continued with efforts to promote and maintain financial stability and growth in the SADC region through cooperation and exchange of information and engagement between regional regulators.
