In a move aimed at retaining staff, the country’s largest insurance company Botswana Insurance Holdings Limited (BIHL) said it will seek shareholders’ approval to adopt and implement the Botswana Insurance Fund Management Limited (BIFM) Citizen Economic Empowerment Scheme.
In a Botswana Stock Exchange filing, the company noted that it believes the implementation of the Scheme will enable BIFM to structure a competitive remuneration package, which is designed as an additional incentive tool to reward and retain Executives and quality Employees.
“BIFM places strong emphasis on the recruitment and retention of Executives and quality Employees with talent in all areas of BIFM’s operations, and in particular, that possess the drive, leadership, skills, expertise and experience of such persons, as the Company considers to be qualities that will assist BIFM to realise its strategic and long-term business goals,” a note said.
BIHL established an employee share scheme for the benefit of the employees of BIFM through the establishment of a Trust registered as a Deed of Trust signed on 18 December 2017 and Share Plan Scheme signed on 18 December 2017. A total 21,849,246 BIFM Shares, comprising 25.1% of the issued capital, have been reserved for the Share Scheme, which will be new shares issued by BIFM.
Subject to any alteration in the share capital of BIFM, the maximum number of Shares allocated to any Participant under this Scheme in respect of all vested and unvested awards shall not exceed 4% of the issued share capital of BIFM with effect from date of adoption of this Scheme.
BIHL said the Fair Value of such shares has been determined by an independent external valuation exercise. On inception of the Scheme, 15% of the Ordinary Shares issued by BIFM will be subscribed by its citizen employees under the Share Plan Scheme.
“In the event of these shares not being fully subscribed on the initial issuance of the scheme, the balance of the shares will be transferred to the Trust for future allocation.”
The Trust shall be established for purposes of subscribing for 8,739,698 Ordinary Shares, representing 10.1% of the issued share capital in BIFM, to be held for the benefit of the citizen employees of BIFM and for holding the remainder of any of the shares not subscribed for in terms of the Share Plan Scheme.
The company hopes the move will motivate each beneficiary to achieve and maintain a high level of performance and contribution and make Employee remuneration sufficiently competitive to recruit and retain beneficiaries whose contributions are important to the long-term growth and profitability of BIFM.
“The Trustees will also take into consideration the number of Performance Shares and / or SARs and / or Retention Shares that may comprise an Award to an Employee by reference to the Employee’s salary, grade, individual performance, retention requirements and market benchmarks (as applicable) and any other factors.”
This is hoped will prevent poaching in the competitive pension and insurance fund industries. The Board of Directors proposes to convene an EGM to seek Shareholders’ approval to adopt and implement the Scheme.