30 Apr 2014

Financial firm, Letshego Holdings, has embarked on diversifying its services and now offers loans to mining and micro and small enterprises.

Presenting the company annual results for the year ending January 31, 2014, group managing director, Mr Chris Low said they had also introduced deposits in other markets. However, application for a licence has been rejected by Bank of Botswana for unknown reasons, Mr Low said.

He said they were availing an opportunity for customers to deposit facilities which required a banking licence from Bank of Botswana. This was different from licences held by commercial banks.

Mr Low said 90 per cent of their business is in payroll lending to government employees and they have now extended to cover employees in mining companies.

He said they are not striving to be a commercial bank as payroll lending is their core business, adding that they will continue to look into other sectors as they aim to diversify their services.

The company is also looking into diversifying its funding source. 
Letshego is regulated and has been licenced by the Non-bank Financial Authority (NBFIRA).

The company started in Botswana and today has extended its footprint to other markets in East and Southern Africa, with latest being Lesotho which has been operating for about a year.

Mr Low however said at the moment they do not have an interest to pen branches in South Africa, although they have appetite for new markets.

Meanwhile Mr Low said currently there was no borrowing in South Sudan where a civil war has broken in a newly independent African state.

A team has been 
dispatched to the country to undertake studies of the operations, he added. The chief financial officer Mr Colm Patterson said they are pleased with the results adding that operations in Botswana, Namibia and Mozambique account to 80 per cent of their loan book. Investments for the future are being made, he added.

He stated that company advances to customers increased by 33 per cent to P4.4 billion from P3.3 billion recorded the previous year.
Mr Patterson said impairments at 1.7 per cent were within the company’s objective.

Letshego has also realised 58 per cent profit before tax generated outside Botswana but this does not mean business in the country has declined as other markets are registering growth, he said.

The Botswana Stock Exchange (BSE) listed company raised P350 million from its listed medium term note programme. Ends