Letshego Holdings Namibia financial results for the financial year ending 31 December 2020 indicate an after-tax profit of N$341 million. Apart from this solid performance amidst reduced economic activity from a recession and the pandemic, Letshego’s business model continues to expand its banking solutions to several of its access points across the country.
Amidst challenging economic conditions experienced in 2019 and which continue to pervade the 2020 financial year, economic activity remained subdued across the key economic sectors and the Covid-19 pandemic added to the headwinds facing the domestic and global economies. Letshego Namibia, however, faced these challenges head on as it made significant progress in its transformational journey and remained focused on achieving its strategic agenda.
Apart from the challenges faced due to the pandemic, 2020 was a transformative year for Letshego Namibia, with digital transformation at the centre of activities to support business continuity and ensure that its customers and people’s safety and well-being are prioritised. The transformation was underpinned by the implementation of digital channels and supported by call centre with staff working remotely. As a result of the effort, digital adoption increased to 64% in Namibia in December 2020.
Chairperson of the board of directors of Letshego Holdings Namibia Maryvonne Palanduz commented: “We take pride in our consistent delivery in terms of our service and product offering, which are now geared towards the digitisation of all our service and product channels. Our shareholders remain an integral part of our growth path and we remain optimistic to continue delivering despite economic challenges”.
Highlights from Letshego Namibia’s financial results include advances to customers, which grew by 24% in comparison to 2019; customer deposit mobilisation kicked off in 2020 with a growth from N$43 million at end 2019 to N$187 million at the end of 2020, representing a substantial growth of a N$144 million.
With such results, CEO Ester Kali made remarked on the performance: “We have seen positive results in the performance of our digital channels during 2020 with growth in our mobile banking transactions values almost four-fold from N$41 million in 2019 to N$140 million by the end of 2020. We were able to successfully rollout digital customer onboarding and alternative channels solutions to avert the impact of Covid-19 on customer volumes”.
An interesting observation despite the push for card-less transactions, card transaction values more than doubled to N$379 million comparing to the 2019 amount of N$154 million. Apart from these notable figures, the key drivers to this transformation included adopting enterprise-wide agility, the conversion of traditional direct sales agents (DSAs) into digital eagles to re-educate customers to transition from traditional channels to remote digital alternatives.
“Letshego Namibia remains focused on improving the lives of its customers and communities through financial literacy initiatives aimed at promoting productive lending, encouraging a culture of savings as well as rewarding longstanding customer relationships,” Kali concluded.