When Reinette van der Merwe assumed the role of Group Chief Executive Officer (GCEO) of Botswana-headquartered Letshego Africa Holdings on 1 October 2025, she stepped into leadership at a time of tightening liquidity conditions across several African markets.
Her first priority was not expansion. It was stability.
“I came in at a time of turbulence,” she says. “It was important to understand the DNA of the organisation and see conditions on the ground.”
Over the past 100 days, the GCEO has engaged extensively across Letshego’s footprint, including visits to Eswatini, Lesotho, Namibia and Mozambique. At home in Botswana, she has focused on strengthening leadership alignment, engaging key shareholders and reinforcing the company’s financial base in its core market.
Botswana Remains the Anchor Market
Botswana continues to be Letshego’s principal market, with the company maintaining its position as the leading microfinance institution in the country, despite increasing competition from banks and other lenders.
The company believes there remains further growth runway locally, particularly as the business gradually diversifies beyond its traditional lending model.
The GCEO has spent part of her early tenure meeting significant shareholders and institutional partners, including BPOPF, BIHL, Sanlam and asset managers, reaffirming the Group’s strategic direction and turnaround priorities. The engagements continue with all other stakeholders.
“These engagements are critical,” she says, “because confidence from shareholders, regulators and funders underpins our ability to serve customers sustainably.”
Liquidity First, Growth Second
Across parts of the region, liquidity pressures have required careful capital management.
Rather than pursue aggressive loan book expansion, Letshego has prioritised capital and liquidity stabilisation while maintaining customer service levels. The company reports that its liquidity position has improved across markets during the period, marking an important step in restoring balance sheet resilience.
Performance of bond programmes in Botswana, Namibia and Ghana remains steady, with continued institutional appetite. In addition, customer deposit growth has strengthened, and will be further supported by new deposit-taking licences secured in Eswatini and Lesotho over the past year.
For Botswana stakeholders, these developments signal strengthening funding depth and brand confidence.
Strategic Refocus Towards Southern Africa
Letshego is advancing the sale process of its East and West Africa subsidiaries. Management describes this as deliberate refocusing rather than contraction.
The Group intends to concentrate capital and management attention on Southern Africa, particularly the SADC region, where it sees clearer product and market alignment and stronger long-term potential.
Operating across multiple jurisdictions exposes Letshego to regulatory and macroeconomic shifts. Management has intensified regulatory engagements across markets to ensure alignment on policy developments and emerging technologies.
Mobile lending models have performed well in East and West Africa, while the Deduction-at-Source model continues to anchor performance in Southern Africa, including Botswana.
By narrowing its geographic footprint, the Group aims to deepen relevance and strengthen operational efficiency in markets where it holds leading positions.
Strengthening Digital and Operations
Digital transformation remains central to Letshego’s inclusion mandate. During her first 100 days, the GCEO commissioned a comprehensive review of the Group’s digital infrastructure, examining system capability, uptime and cybersecurity safeguards.
The Digital Mall platform has been integrated into country performance scorecards to drive measurable customer adoption.
The head office structure review is underway to lead operational strengthening, alongside plans to bring in graduate technology talent to build long-term digital capability.
A new operating structure is also being embedded across the Group to improve efficiency, cost control and execution discipline.
Managing Risk in a Changing Environment
Operating across multiple jurisdictions exposes Letshego to regulatory and macroeconomic shifts. Management has intensified regulatory engagements across markets to ensure alignment on policy developments and emerging technologies.
Geopolitical and market risk analysis has been formalised within funding and strategy processes to improve resilience to external shocks.
Funding diversification remains a focus, with efforts directed at building stable capital structures capable of withstanding volatility.
Leadership Culture and Internal Alignment
Internally, the GCEO has emphasised collaboration, accountability and disciplined execution.
She has held town halls in countries visited so far, as well as virtual townhalls across all countries and instituted regular employee pulse checks to maintain transparency and alignment across the organisation.
Her objective is to leave the organisation leaner, financially resilient and more relevant to the communities it serves.
The Road Ahead
Over the next 12 to 24 months, Letshego will focus on:
- Finalising its geographic refocus towards Southern Africa.
- Further strengthening its balance sheet and capital structure.
- Diversifying income streams beyond lending into transactional and deposit-taking services.
- Embedding its new operating model to enhance efficiency.
For Letshego, the outlook is centred on consolidation and disciplined growth.
As a Botswana-listed institution with nearly three decades of operating history, Letshego is signalling that stability, execution and regional focus will define its next phase.
After 100 days in office, the leadership message is clear: resilience first, sustainable growth next.
