- Tsaone Segaetsho
Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of Botswana Stock Exchange-listed lender, Letshego Holdings, Aupa Monyatsi, told this publication this week that the group remains well-capitalised and maintains a robust liquidity position.
He made this statement while refuting claims circulating in continental media outlets that the lender had defaulted on a $30.49 million loan for its Kenya and Uganda subsidiaries and reduced 142 jobs in those units.
Monyatsi asserted that Letshego has neither defaulted nor failed to service any of its obligations across its subsidiaries. He made this statement following the release of a statement by the Group on Monday, refuting allegations of defaults pertaining to Letshego Kenya and Uganda, describing those claims as unfounded and inaccurate.
Letshego was responding to articles written last week, particularly a Kenyan newspaper, Nation Media, which on Friday headlined, “Botswana’s Letshego defaults on Kenya, Uganda loans.”
Nation Media highlighted “disclosures” suggesting that the defaults on the Kenya and Uganda loans are part of a $210.95 million debt that the lender failed to repay as scheduled, amid a $10.82 million loss for the year ended 31 December 2023, casting doubt on its operations as a ‘going concern’.
However, Letshego stated this week that the Group’s Annual Results for 2023, first published on 22 March 2024, affirmed that the Group’s Expected Credit Loss (ECL) methodology had been adjusted, impacting the 2023 results and resulting in the restatement of 2022 financial results.
“As a result of these adjustments and other areas of judgement, the Group breached some covenants with some of its funders, which are disclosed fully in our Integrated Annual Report for 2023. Beyond the covenant breaches, the Group has not failed on its debt obligations. For the two subsidiaries falsely and incorrectly mentioned by the media house, we wish to confirm that we did proactively engage with our funders and obtained formal ‘letters of no action’ for the covenant breaches,” said Monyatsi.
