Letshego tightens screws as impairments jump 52%

Letshego also said the adoption of the IFRS 9 reporting standards, with effect from January 2018, had had the effect of raising overall impairment provisions.

The microlender’s impairments rose to P361.5 million, up 52% from the previous year, while the loan book grew 12% to P8.7 billion. Besides Botswana, Letshego operates in Ghana, Kenya, Lesotho, Mozambique, Namibia, Nigeria, Rwanda, Swaziland, Tanzania and Uganda. According to the group’s annual results released on Tuesday, Tanzania had the highest proportion of impairments as a percentage of total outstanding loans, at about 17.4%, followed by the West African market at 16.6% and its East African presence at 16.4%. By comparison, Letshego’s Southern African operations had rates averaging 2.2 percent with Namibia at 0.54% and Mozambique at 1.3 percent.