FNB CEO Ms. Lorato Boakgomo-Ntakhwana with FNB Chairman Mr. Peter Stevenson

First National Bank (FNB) on Tuesday 4 February 2014 hosted its 20th Budget Review at the Gaborone International Conference Centre. The FNBB Annual Budget Review takes place every year, following the delivery of the Annual National Budget speech by the Honourable Minister of Finance, Mr. Kenneth Mathambo. With this initiative, the Bank aims to equip Batswana to further understand the National Budget Speech and what this means to them as individuals and in their everyday lives.

“These discussions, which are by design informative, also brings together participants from both private and public sectors. The discourse amounts to debating pertinent issues in the global and local economy, but more importantly pondering on how these issues impact on the daily lives of every Motswana especially against the backdrop of the Minister’s current budget Speech.

The presentations that will be made by our distinguished panel of Experts will hopefully assist to unpack the direction which our economy will take over the next twelve months”, said FNB CEO, Ms. Lorato Boakgomo- Ntakhwana.

This year’s review saw a panel of 3 industry experts from the economic sector provide an in-depth analysis of the National Budget. The panel included Mr. John Cairns, Head of Research at Global Market, who gave an overview of the Global Economy and Mr. Rudi Binedell, an Audit Partner at Price Waterhouse Coopers went through the 2014/2015 Budget and its tax implications.

The final panelist was Mr. Joshua Galeforolwe, Managing Director at Westcliff Capital who took stakeholders through what impact the Budget Speech has on the business and the investment climate.

“On behalf of the entire FNB team, I thank all our stakeholders for their support. We will continually strive to contribute to the common good of our nation and towards sustainable growth and prosperity and look forward to growing this platform” concluded Ms. Boakgomo- Ntakhwana.