; regulation can help confer legitimacy on regulated service providers, but the value of this support is quickly eroded if the underlying integrity of governance structures is not well - entrenched. i do not need to remind you of the details of recent events in botswana that have severely tested this core principle while, more broadly, in countries such as south africa and the united kingdom, the competence and integrity of the accounting profession is once more under intense public scrutiny. to their credit, in each case, the concerned regulators in botswana have acted without fear or favour in addressing the challenges. the regulatory structure has been tested and not found wanting, and this is gratifying. but poor governance has a corrosive effect that, left unchecked, could undermine public confidence and trust in financial institutions and financial markets, however notwithstanding carefully these designed. governance i related trust that, challenges, botswana will continue to make progress, cementing its lofty position in the continental rankings. i thank you for your kind attention, and look forward to the next update of the absa africa financial markets index.

developing indices to measure the level of development of financial institutions and markets in terms of depth, access and efficiency, thus expanding the range of indicators used to assess financial development. these multidimensional indices capture the fact that financial services are provided by multiple financial institutions offering a wide array of products and services. the africa financial markets index is a valuable addition to this earlier work, where the absa banking group has partnered with the official monetary and financial institutions forum ( omfif ), an independent think tank for central banking, economic policy and public investment. this is with the explicit objective of providing a toolkit for countries seeking to strengthen their financial markets infrastructure. the bank of botswana was fortunate to be represented at the original launch of the index in washington dc during the 2017 annual meetings of the imf and world bank. as already mentioned, the official launch in botswana comes shortly after the release of the first annual update of the index. this is itself an important event, as it is through such regular updates that progress can be monitored. it is also to be welcomed that the coverage of the index has already increased, from the original 17 countries, to 20 in the 2018 update. as already explained, the index ranks the maturity, openness and accessibility of financial markets in africa based on both qualitative and quantitative criteria, focussing on six fundamental pillars for financial market performance. the 2018 update also pays special attention to policies for enhancing market growth, including financial inclusion and investor education. most of the surveyed countries are implementing, or preparing to implement national policy frameworks for financial market development. the index will, therefore, help provide them with valuable insights and tools to improve the state of their financial infrastructure and markets. as maria ramos, chief executive of the absa group, has correctly observed, the index facilitates a meaningful debate about the maturity and accessibility of africa ’ s financial markets, thus helping policymakers, investors, regulators and other market participants to identify the areas and initiatives which will drive the most significant improvements. in as much as i fully concur with the above observations, i should inject a note of caution at this point. in conducting the meaningful debate that ms ramos refers to, we should not just highlight the successes, but give equal weight to areas where more progress needs to be made. in this respect, the report highlights continuing room for improvement in several areas. these include, for many countries, the capacity of domestic investors, which hinders the development of new financial products and