Letshego completes acquisition of Nigerian Bank
Pauline Dikuelo | Thursday January 21, 2016 18:00
The move is part of Letshego’s strategy to spread wings in Africa and have anticipated Nigeria to be their key market.
According to Letshego’s group managing director, Chris Low this opportunity to enter the Nigerian market coincides with the expansion of range of financially inclusive products and services.
“We believe Nigeria’s growth prospects in our targeted low and middle income customer segments have significant upside potential and by bringing our skills to this market, we can further financial inclusion and improve lives across Nigeria. We look forward to being able to further improve lives across the continent through this development,” said Low.
Currently, FBN Microfinance which is a deposit taking financial institution that specialises in micro finance, has 28 customer access points in Nigeria and a customer base of over 385,000. It has a staff complement of over 300, a depositor base of 80,000 customers and a loan customer base of over 10,000.
Its core business is lending, savings and transactional financial services to micro and small enterprises. The bank’s operations are directly aligned to Letshego’s financial inclusion agenda.
FBN Microfinance is one of the only six micro-finance banks in Nigeria to have been awarded a national micro-finance banking licence.
Letshego brings its expertise in payroll deduction lending in the public and private sector as well as lending to micro and small enterprises with a focus on agriculture, education and health sectors.
FBN Microfinance Bank will be rebranded to Letshego MFB during the course of the year.
Currently Letshego, which ranks among the top 30 market value sub-Saharan African companies, has nine branches in the east and southern Africa, which includes; Kenya, Lesotho, Mozambique, Namibia, Rwanda, Swaziland, Tanzania and Uganda. It has deposit-taking licences in Mozambique, Rwanda and Tanzania.