06 Mar 2017

Letshego Holdings Limited Group is following its strategic agenda to become Africa’s leading inclusive finance group.
Speaking during Letshego Annual Results presentation in Gaborone on March 3, Letshego Holdings Limited Group managing director, Mr Chris Low said the Group had strengthened its operating platform, with Letshego Mozambique, Rwanda, Kenya and Tanzania now live with USSD mobile financial solutions.
“We are trying to create a unique niche position across the continent at the time when there are lots of banking disruptions going on,” Mr Low said.
He said the financial group finalised its Namibian banking licence last year July and expanded its agency network in Tanzania.  “We continue to seek deposit-taking licences to facilitate our financial inclusion agenda and we finalised the acquisition of AFB Ghana, bringing the number of deposit-taking businesses to six,” he added.
Mr Low said ‘digitisation is not Letshego’s central strategy, but it forms a core element of its strategy as there is collaboration with a number of partners to accelerate customer acquisition, provide access to rural areas, help manage costs as well as give new solutions’.
He stated that the group reported a nine per cent increase in total revenues to P2.2 billion, a 13 per cent increase in net interest income to P1.6 billion and a six per cent increase in net loans and advances to customers to P6.7 billion.
The managing director further said franchise growth and the new funding lines introduced during 2016, brought the group debt to equity ratio to 85 per cent up from 66 per cent in 2015.
He said this was aligned with the strategic objective of optimising the group’s balance sheet.
“During the year under review, we successfully refinanced all our key funding lines, demonstrating the confidence that the market continues to have in Letshego, also our refreshed brand was launched across 10 markets, with the acquisitions of Advans Bank Tanzania (now Letshego Bank Tanzania) and FBN MFB in Nigeria (now Letshego MFB) being integrated into the Group,” he said. ENDS