By: Nthati Moerane
Maseru
The Central Bank of Lesotho (CBL) together with consultants of Brandex Company from Swaziland summoned representatives from media houses and civil society organizations to be present at the engagement of CBL’s website revamping project on February 27th 2024.
The meeting was held at Lehakoe Recreational Centre on March 06th 2024 from 1000 hrs to 1200hrs. The main purpose of the project is to develop a 21st century website with modern technologies, thus creating a responsive platform that addresses the more discerning current and future needs and expectations of the bank’s strategic stakeholders.
The project was established in February this year and may reach its completion in December 2024. The reason for the Central Bank of Lesotho to renovate the website is for them to look into it and reviewing it, in order to make sure that it is really addressing the needs and expectations of the stakeholders. One of the main objectives of the project are to achieve and maintain price stability and promoting sound, safe and efficient payment systems.
The Chief of corporate communication of the bank Ephraim Moremoholo, says the most recent review of the website was 2017. Having realized that in the age of technology, communication trends change quickly, as well as technology systems in terms of processes – it was deemed important that they look into the website as it is the channel of communication through which members of the public engage with CBL. He explains the objective of the bank to be the promotion and achievement of price stability.
The functions CBL performs include supervision and licensing of financial institutions, promotion of efficient payment systems, issuing and management of currency and the stabilization of the finance industry.
The website will be more interactive as to help the users access the bank’s information and services thus avoiding countless trips to the bank. Revamping the website is also for it to be more responsive in terms of performance and addressing the public’s needs and expectations.
The differently targeted media houses and civil society organizations were to learn about the website, and understand the features so as to gradually educate the public about it and its accessibility.
Brandex Project consultant Zithulele Gina states another concern for the website to be the increase of the CBL brand value. As the Brandex company helps institutions develop and align their strategic objectives with day to day businesses and operational goals, Gina also mentions that as the company that specialises in consulting, they will be helping in the innovation of the website.
He says, “There are methods or approaches applied in the revamping of this website, these include establishing client goals, research for the ‘Aha!’ factor, meeting deadlines and making ideas come to life.”
He further explains that stakeholders’ matter in the innovation because governors and executive leadership are active participants in every deliverable presentation – to the effect of satisfaction with key milestones, communication teams and media to provide essential insights to customer needs, messaging, and branding, human resources ensure alignment with company culture, policies, and employee management.
One other Brandex Project Consultant, Lindo Sithole says to maintain readily known value, they do not want to change the website completely, as they still want it to be, “something that the people can still relate to. We are able to pick a lot of issues that the current website has, even in terms of how it runs with other websites. So from that with the project, the plan is to fill gaps through development policies.
Currently we achieve that by doing stakeholders’ consultations – these will bring situational analysis.”