Established in 1998 in Gaborone, Botswana, Letshego Holdings Limited has been listed on the Botswana Stock Exchange since 2002. Today, we are the largest indigenous company on the Botswana Stock Exchange with more than half of our shareholders being local investors.
With a proudly Botswanan heritage as well as a dedicated and committed team of people from across Africa, we have enjoyed consistent growth for almost two decades and expanded our footprint across the continent.
We are now established in Botswana, Kenya, Lesotho, Mozambique, Namibia, Nigeria, Rwanda, Swaziland, Tanzania and Uganda – with a growing financial inclusion agenda that is aligned to supporting local government initiatives. The provision of consumer finance to our customers – primarily government employees through the deduction at source model – remains our core business.
Letshego has grown from humble beginnings as a company employing less than 30 people in a small office in Gaborone to being Botswana’s largest indigenous group (by market capitalisation) listed on the Botswana Stock Exchange. Our inclusive finance strategy has steered our expansion beyond our borders.
As of 2015, and through a consistent focus on solving our customers’ needs in the simplest, most appropriate and accessible way, Letshego has grown to provide finance to 300 000 borrowers and offer savings capability to in excess of 100 000 depositors across the continent. This growth in size of operations has brought with it a diversity of talents, strengths, expertise and communities that make up our African heritage. We employ 2 300 employees representing 20 nationalities across 10 countries. As such, Letshego embraces our identity as a pan-African financial services provider.
The firm’s ambition is to become Africa’s leading inclusive finance group. Giving our customers access to loans that they can use for agribusiness, education, health, housing, and micro and small businesses signifies how we deliver inclusive finance and encourage productive use of our solutions. These solutions are offered through innovative access points or channels that give our customers access to our services anytime, anywhere.
Additionally, the ability to save for families, for education and for the future, as well as to pay and be paid safely and securely, is not available to many customers in the low- to middle-income earning segments of Africa. We have recognised the need to provide simple, appropriate and affordable solutions for our customers to allow them to pay bills and send and receive money. We continue to explore and develop innovative ways to make this possible across a broader footprint.
Innovation underpins our inclusive finance agenda, combined with a strong focus on customer experience. These themes – in combination with our commitment to improving lives – ensure that we are able to sustainably deliver strong growth, performance and returns for our shareholders.
Letshego launched its agency banking model in Mozambique, with the highlight being the LetsGo BlueBox model, which will allow an individual to open a basic transactional deposit account in remote areas via an agent’s smartphone or tablet. Also – in time – agents will provide additional services including deposit taking and withdrawals (cash-in/cash-out services).
The LetsGo BlueBox will also bring with it a number of features, including a bluetooth printer to provide customers with printed receipts/statements, a charging facility and torchlight, as well as financial education aids on the agent device and distribution to agent customers. In effect, the LetsGo BlueBox has the capability to take full-scope financial services to the customer. As such, this innovation aims to eliminate barriers for those in rural locations and help them join the financial ecosystem.
Letshego’s agency banking model is designed to strengthen the provision of inclusive financial services in rural areas and to those in various segments (formal, informal and micro and small entrepreneurs) that are either ignored or underserved by mainstream banks and other existing financial service providers. The LetsGo BlueBox incorporates eco-friendly practices in an affordable manner.
We celebrate 18 years of improving the lives of our customers, and in turn improving communities that we call home. Our customers have now gained access to participate financially and actively in the economy through our solutions.
Letshego remains committed to helping the rural and underserved populations in every country we do business in, as our solutions impact on the members of our societies whose needs are, more often than not, overlooked.
This is especially so when it comes to gaining access to financing for education, health, housing and businesses – which in turn provide customers with dignity. Through-out our journey, we strive to significantly shift the narrative by improving lives through our services that are based on driving greater financial inclusion and therefore stimulating development.
We are humbled by and proud of our invaluable niche that has improved lives by servicing more than hundreds of thousands customers, which in turn has had a positive impact on their families and communities. Through our assistance to the underserved, we are grateful to have contributed towards Africa’s development.
To all our partners, customers, staff and other stakeholders we say: ‘Together, let’s improve life.’
