Botswana Insurance Holdings Limited (BIHL) Group has bemoaned Letshego's contribution to its latest unimpressive financial results, in which it recorded a loss of P126 million, a turnaround from a profit of P611 million last year.
For the year ended 31 December 2024, BIHL had to impair the value of Letshego by P553 million as the pan-African microfinancier's troubles continue.
BIHL has a 27% in Letshego. For its half year results for the period ended 31 June 2024, BIHL also had to impair Letshego's value by P189 million.
However, Letshego was not the only place where BIHL's finger pointed. The Group also cited macroeconomic conditions, unfavorable interest rate movements and accounting technicalities for the significant drop in profit.
Regarding the macroeconomic conditions, BIHL CEO Catherine CEO cited an example that as a result of high rate of unemployment, the number of dependents per insurance policy holder has significanty increased, putting pressure on overall margins. On accounting technicalities, BIHL Group CFO Frank Dalo stated that the once-off sale of FSG Botswana inflated earnings in FY 2023, a fact which reflected in an accelerated drop in earnings in 2024.
Overall, BIHL revenue from customer contracts increased by 19% to P351 million operating profit surged by 49% to P411 million while total assets under management increased by 15% to P51 billion.
Despite what could be regarded as less than ideal results, BIHL still paid out P518 million in dividends throughout FY 2024, which contributed to the 13% decrease in group equity value to P4.7 billion.