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Botswana-based Letshego Holdings Limited has acquired a 100 per cent shareholding in FBN Microfinance Bank from its parent, FBN Holdings Plc, Nigeria’s oldest banking group.
Letshego is a financial inclusion-focused group with consumer, micro lending and deposit-taking subsidiaries across Southern and East Africa, where it has successfully built a footprint with 265,000 customers across nine countries.
The acquisition of FBN MFB marks Letshego’s entry into Nigeria and West Africa, bringing its footprint to 10 countries, with a customer base of over 385,000.
Nigeria, in particular, has been a key target market in Letshego’s diversification plans, the company said.
FBN MFB, which was established in 2009, is one of the six microfinance banks in Nigeria that have been awarded a national microfinance banking licence.
The bank is said to have 28 branches and over 300 team members, with its core business on lending, savings and transactional financial services to Micro and Small Enterprises.
According to a statement, with over 80,000 depositors and over 10,000 MSE borrowing customers, the bank’s operations are directly aligned to Letshego’s financial inclusion agenda. 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.
The Group Managing Director, Letshego, Mr. Chris Low, said, “As the leading indigenous BSE-company by market capitalisation and profitability, it is an exciting time for us at Letshego. This opportunity to enter the Nigerian market coincides with the expansion of our range of financially inclusive products and services.
“We believe Nigeria’s growth prospects in our targeted low-and-middle income, and MSE, customer segments have significant upside potential, and that, 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.”
