Mmegi

Letshego refocuses its African dream

Slimming down: Letshego is recalibrating into a lean, mean machine PIC: PHATSIMO KAPENG
Slimming down: Letshego is recalibrating into a lean, mean machine PIC: PHATSIMO KAPENG

Homegrown microlender, Letshego Africa, is selling five of its East and West African subsidiaries, taking a loss of P281 million on the deal. An ambitious expansion strategy that began in 2005 has suffered the perils other titans faced when ‘doing business in Africa’. MBONGENI MGUNI writes

January 2005 was a history-making month for Letshego Africa. The then seven-year old microlender officially established a presence outside Botswana for the first time, marking a bold and pioneering move for a local company, as its peers were and generally continue to be conservative in their expansion outlook.

Letshego’s choice of address for its debut expansion was equally ambitious, skipping over the regional neighbours and reaching to Uganda, a market removed from the familial comforts of Botswana and Southern Africa.

Editor's Comment
The Boko-led administration has to tread carefully

‘When you make peace withyourself, you make peace with the world’- Maha GhosanandaThis may come at a huge cost if not handled properly. What started off on Labour Day in Letlhakane this year, where Boko was in attendance when the militant lawyer-cum-trade unionist, Robert Rabasimane rebutted the President’s address in defence of the trade union has seemingly spiralled out of control. The issue is now creating a cat-and-mouse type of a...

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