29 Feb 2016

Micro lending company Letshego have revamped their brand by launching a new logo in Gaborone. 

When revealing the new logo Ms Mythri Sambasivan-George, head of corporate affairs said the logo represents a combination of strong foundation with a huge focus on the history and future of partnerships.

She said that explains what the brand will be signified by in the future which embodies the rich history of Letshego. Furthermore she said the name Letshego was retained.

The reason, according to her being that after conducted research, they realised that due to its accessibility there is need to make it look bold in the brand. “The name remains with the tagline ‘let’s improve life,” noted Ms Sambasivan-George.

When presenting the end of 2015 Financial Year (FY) results the managing director Mr Allen Low, announced interest income increased 10 percentage to P1.7 billion.

Mr Low said Letshego continues to diversify in terms of geographic, customer and product mix as well as through introducing new capabilities.

“In our existing market there is continued growth in our home market of Botswana despite the strong competition in which we increased loans and advances to customers by seven percent to P2.2 billion,” he added.

He said a number of new products were launched including agriculture, supply chain financing, asset financing and micro insurance as well as enhancing the existing ones.

Mr Allan announced that in December 2015, Letshego was confirmed as an Alliance for Financial Inclusion (AFI) private partner making it AFI’s first Africa focused private partner.

He explained that AFI partnership status is important for the Group’s sustainability objectives and will enable accelerated dialogue with regulators sharing a common focus on creating policies conducive to financial inclusion.

“This year’s results show good fundamental growth in an environment of depreciating exchange rates against the Pula in most of the markets Letshego operates in,” said Mr Low.

He further said the Group continues to invest in human capital and infrastructure in support of its strategic growth agenda.

Mr Low announced that there are now four businesses within the Group with deposit taking licences and noted that there are two from acquisitions in Nigeria and Tanzania as well as those established in Mozambique and Rwanda.

“Conversion of the provisional licence in Namibia is subject to satisfactory finalisation of certain conditions set by Bank of Namibia and is expected by mid-2016,” he said.

Moreover he also said the evaluation of opportunities for licencing in other countries continues. He added saying in May 2015 the Group received shareholder approval for a share buyback.

Therefore as a result of the acquisitions in Nigeria and Tanzania the company was restricted from implementing the buyback due to being in closed periods whilst the acquisitions were taking place.

The Group will, however  continue to assess the viability of this aspect of its balance sheet management process. Ends