FAQs

Diversification & Reduction of risk: An investor’s risk exposure is reduced by way of diversification. Investors’ money is always spread across different investment instruments, or within the same category of instrument, but still across different entities. E.g: An Equity fund can diversify by buying shares of different companies.

Affordability: Because unit trusts are pooled or collective investment schemes, investors don’t need to have already accumulated large amounts of money to invest in them. At Bifm, investors can begin investing from as little as P200 per month.

Access to Professionals: Unit trusts are managed by experienced and professional fund managers. While you may not necessarily be clued up on stock market investing, at Bifm you can trust that your money is being managed by experienced and knowledgeable professionals who have the expertise to manage your unit trust fund.

Flexibility: Bifm Unit Trusts offer investors great flexibility in terms of how they invest, how long they invest, and for what purposes they invest. Investors get to decide what their frequency of contribution will be (once-off, monthly or ad-hoc). It is also the investor’s prerogative to decide how long they wish to have their money invested, and lastly, investors can invest in the Bifm unit trusts for many reasons eg, Emergency fund, Holiday fund, School fees, Asset acquisition, general saving etc.

Exposure to Different Assets & Markets: The pooling together of investors’ funds allows investors exposure to different investment securities some of which investors might not have been able to access were they to go direct to the issuer. As in the case of Bifm, unit trusts can also give you exposure to different markets.

Liquidity: Bifm Unit Trusts are highly liquid and allow investors access to their money within 72 hours.

Individual Clients: As long as you have a local bank account and are resident in Botswana you can invest with us. Contact us for more information on +267 3951564 or RetailServices@bifm.co.bw

The Financial Intelligence Regulations 2019 of Botswana require all specified institutions – i.e. financial institutions – to identify, verify and keep records of all clients with whom they establish a business relationship. This is to combat money laundering activities and fraud in Botswana, and to protect the interests of legitimate investors.

Depending on the fund(s) you choose to invest in, you may incur Initial fees of up to 5% (excl VAT), as a once off fee.

Annual management fees on our unit trust funds range from 1% - 2% per annum.

To upgrade to transact on your portfolio a copy of your Identity document and Proof of address will be required to ensure security. Please call the Bifm Unit Trusts Office for more details.

If you have been invested with us prior to 12 November 2018, your inception date will reflect as 12 November 2018.  This signifies the date that we migrated to our current systems.  Rest assured that your current portfolio value reflects all the gains and contributions you have made since you’ve been invested with us.

The fund that you are looking at may only have been launched within the last three months.

All the units that have been credited to your account, irrespective of whether they have been cleared or not.

An Income Distribution refers to interest and dividends that a fund receives based on the assets it has invested in. The investor may choose for the income to be reinvested or paid out to their bank account.

The Total Available Value can differ from your Total Investment Value due to a clearing period of 4 working days for debit orders and once off debit collections. After the clearing period has lapsed your Total Investment Value and Total Available Value will be equal.