How Botswana is using the Beneficial Ownership Data Standard to power its public beneficial ownership register
Botswana has launched a new public beneficial ownership register, powered by the Beneficial Ownership Data Standard, the world’s leading open standard for beneficial ownership information.
On 20th March 2025, the Companies and Intellectual Property Authority of Botswana unveiled this new tool as part of an upgrade to its Online Business Registration System.
Anyone can now go to the public search interface to look up a business — and then generate a simple visualisation of its beneficial ownership network, thanks to the use of the open-source Beneficial Ownership Data Standard visualisation library.
This world-first development has been made possible by Botswana’s partnership since 2019 with Foster Moore, one of the world’s leading company registry software companies, to use their Verne® company registry product.
Since 2022, Foster Moore has been partnered with my former team Open Ownership to spread usage of the Beneficial Ownership Data Standard across the globe.
In January 2024, this partnership came to fruition with the launch of Foster Moore’s Verne® Beneficial Ownership product which leverages both the Beneficial Ownership Data Standard and the Beneficial Ownership Data Standard visualisation library.
Over the last year, the Companies and Intellectual Property Authority and Foster Moore have collaborated to update the Online Business Registration System to incorporate the Verne® Beneficial Ownership product so that companies can easily submit beneficial ownership declarations as part of company registration or update processes.
The resulting data is collected in line with the Beneficial Ownership Data Standard helping to ensure interoperability with data collected by other jurisdictions who choose to adopt the standard.
As Foster Moore notes in its 2023 guide to beneficial ownership registers, “compliance with the Beneficial Ownership Data Standard ensures interoperability across registers, standardised data reporting, and access. This makes it easier to see a global picture of beneficial owners. This is not merely a matter of adhering to rules; it is about fostering a global ecosystem of transparency and accountability”.
Since developing the world’s first fully-electronic online business registry in 1996, Foster Moore has designed and built registry solutions that empower governments in 21 jurisdictions across North America, South East Asia, the Middle East, Africa, the Pacific, and New Zealand.
Congratulations to both the Companies and Intellectual Property Authority and Foster Moore on the launch of this new public register.
I look forward to more countries adopting or rolling out tools and products like this which use the Beneficial Ownership Data Standard to increase the interoperability of beneficial ownership data globally and to support the easier exchange of information and more impactful data use.
For four years, I was the product owner of the Beneficial Ownership Data Standard, the world’s leading open standard for beneficial ownership information and continue to advocate to improve beneficial ownership data quality and standardisation. To learn more or if you need technical guidance or consultancy support, contact me via beneficialownership.co.uk.
