12 Feb 2024

Letshego Botswana desires to become an all-round consumer financial services company through its expanded brand offering and flagship programmes.

This was said by the Chief Executive Officer of Letshego Botswana, Mr Kgotso Bannalotlhe, at the media engagement event in Gaborone recently. Mr Bannalotlhe said as the leading Botswana micro-lender, Letshego strived to build a brand that was approachable, attentive and consistent.

He said: “Anyone who touches points with us should experience these attributes. We have depicted these characteristics because internally, we aimed for simplicity, focus, and discipline. The new and expanded Letshego brand strives to serve the needs of salaried Batswana, self-employed, small business people and entrepreneurs.”

Mr Bannalotlhe said they aimed to serve a set of broader needs for Batswana as ways to support them and help to improve their lives such as enabling them to build, buy or renovate their home anywhere in Botswana, thereby increasing financial inclusion.

He said through their flagship programmes such as Itshetse, Iperekele and Ikagele, Letshego aimed to empower a sense of responsibility, accountability and independence in its customers to support them and their commitment to improving and building their own lives.

“Itshetse will focus on the personal loan product. This aims to encourage customers to have clear goals of building a future for themselves, being focused and clear in their financial needs,” he said.

He added that the Iperekele component aimed to encourage small businesses to seek support from Letshego to grow them and ultimately sustain themselves.

“Building a business has a lot of financial challenges and Letshego endeavours to help them fulfil our promise to our customers, by fulfilling ours to them,” he said.

Under Ikagele, he said, through the affordable housing product, Letshego would guide customers through a journey to owning their own property, thereby empowering them to accomplish their dreams of owning their own homes, in the simplest way. 

He said they were committed to serving the needs of every Motswana, regardless of their status, position or financial means.

He said some people would like to build homes, but the banks would not assist them as they did not support those who wanted to build homes in the villages or did not provide financial support to those who wanted to build certain properties in urban areas, among others.

“We do not judge that someone wants to build a two and half and run to someone who wants to build a mansion. We understand that a home gives one dignity and that a smaller home is as valuable to the owner as a larger home is valuable to the other person,” he said.

Letshego also understood that for such financial inclusion to be beneficial, it had to be coupled with relevant financial solutions, responsible lending, encouraging customers to borrow for productive purposes and at all times guarding against indebtedness.

“As a responsible lender and when someone approached us to seek financing, over and above all else we need to ensure that one can afford it. We lend money with the intent to get it back. We want to ensure that every Motswana who has the ambition to borrow money has access to do so at Letshego, whether that ambition is small or big,” he added.

Letshego has been operating in Botswana for the past 25 years, offering Batswana deduction at source loans and enjoying their support from different walks of life, which ultimately led to its growth as a subsidiary of Letshego Africa, which had a footprint in 11 African countries.

To date, he said, Letshego reached and serviced its customers through their 15 branches and satellite offices across the country and was supported by their new and enhanced digital solutions such as the LetsGo Digital Mall. Letshego also powers the Mascom MyZaka Instant Loan  ENDS