Letshego Africa Holdings Limited (“LAHL”) was incorporated in 1998, is headquartered in Gaborone and has been publicly listed on the Botswana Stock Exchange (BSE) since 2002. Letshego is a pan-African financial institution offering microfinance and consumer lending solutions across eleven subsidiaries in sub-Saharan Africa.
The Listing Requirements of the Botswana Stock Exchange require the Board of Directors of LAHL to announce any circumstances or events that may have a material impact on the Company’s performance when compared to the prior applicable financial period.
The Letshego business remains resilient with good top line performance and loan growth, supported by the core ‘Deduction at Source’ business and the growing mobile lending business. However, whilst underlying operational performance remained strong, the financial performance was impacted by some once-off adjustments. In 2023, it was determined that during the financial period from 2019 to 2023, the calculation of the Expected Credit Loss Allowances was incorrect due to the inclusion of a discount factor to Stage 3 defaulted exposures. Shareholders are advised that LAHL will be restating its prior year audited financial statements to account for this.
Further to this, in the second half of the year, Ghana was assessed to be a hyperinflationary economy, which required Letshego to reflect this hyperinflationary impact within its financial statements in accordance with the accounting standard IAS 29 “Financial Reporting in Hyperinflationary Economies”.
Accordingly, the Board hereby advises shareholders and stakeholders that the Company’s profit before taxation for the year ended 31 December 2023 is expected to be between 65% and 85% (P445 million to P581 million) lower than the restated profit before taxation for the year ended 31 December 2022 of P684 million.
The financial statements on which this trading statement is based has not been audited by the Group’s auditors. The Group’s audited financial results for the year ended 31 December 2023 will be published on or before 30 April 2024.
Shareholders are advised to exercise caution when trading in company shares.
By order of the Group Board
Philip Odera
Group Chairman
Aupa Monyatsi
Group Chief Executive
15 March 2024
DOWNLOAD: Letshego Africa Holdings – Trading Statement for the year ended 31 December 2023.pdf
About Letshego Africa Holdings Limited
The Letshego Group is an African multinational, first opening its doors in Botswana in 1998 by offering loans to government employees.
Today, the Group has over 3,000 employees comprising more than 21 nationalities, and supports public and private sector individual customers, as well as micro and small entrepreneurs. Letshego has operations in 11 sub-Saharan African markets, including Eswatini, Ghana, Kenya, Lesotho, Mozambique, Namibia, Nigeria, Rwanda, Tanzania and Uganda.
Letshego Africa Holdings Limited (the Group holding company) is listed on the Botswana Stock Exchange, with additional listings including a subsidiary listing on the Namibian Stock Exchange, and bond listings on both the Ghana and Johannesburg Stock Exchanges.