Colm Petterson, the finance director at Letshego Holdings Limited, told of its undying love for the much populated western African region.
Speaking at the presentation for the audited results to January 31, 2011 he said the company is actively considering opening offices in West Africa.
“West Africa is still an option. We will do a bit of more work. I do not know, we might open in Ghana or Nigeria,” he said, adding that Zimbabwe is also an option depending on the timing.
Letshego is a pan African financial solution company and currently operates in seven countries with Botswana being its headquarters.
The company, whose main shareholders include the monied Botswana Insurance Fund Management (Bifm), among others, announced some outstanding results for the year. Loans to customers shot up 37 percent to P 2.3 billion while impairment slow-down by 22 percent to P 38.9 million despite the difficult economic climate during the period.
Earnings per share was up 22 percent to 25.8 thebe while cost to income ratio was down 3.3 percent to 19.1 percent, reflecting efficient way of making money.
He said the results showed improvements in markets outside Botswana and now contributes 24 percent towards the profits of the company.
“We had good growth in most of the countries, but there was a slow-down in Swaziland and Uganda during the period under consideration.
Further, Letshego said it was working on the upgrading of its IT in a bid to roll-out some new products that will include the introduction of credit cards. However, it is not yet clear what form of credit cards the company is planning to introduce.
Some of the developments that the company is working on include the rolling out of an insurance cover similar to the one in Namibia. The plan is expected to be introduced in Mozambique and will be taken to other markets later.
The countries are: Botswana, Mozambique, Namibia, Swaziland, Tanzania, Uganda and Zambia.
