Africa-Press – Lesotho. Basotho Enterprises Development Corporation (BEDCO) and Boliba Savings and Credit have on Tuesday signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) aimed at developing and
providing micro enterprises with financial products that are affordable and easily accessible. The five year agreement will see BEDCO assisting MSMEs to build winning business proposals
to qualify for grants and as a result at least 1 000 businesses will be assisted with loans from as little as M1000 to M10 000. BEDCO Micro Enterprises Project Manager Lebohang Mafela said according to the MoU,
the two organizations will collaborate on offering Micro enterprises tailor made financing solutions based on their specific needs. He said BEDCO will support Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises (MSMEs) with
business proposal development and support them pre and post funding with compliance and requirements set out in the financing agreement. “The main role of Boliba will be to support MSMEs by providing them with micro
financing loans to grow and scale their businesses and also provide financial literacy,” he said. Mafela emphasized that this project will facilitate access to finance for MSMEs hence
the MSMEs project will be impacted by this initiatives and this will also enable them to grow and consequently graduate from the small enterprises category.
BEDCO Chief Executive Officer (CEO) Idia Penane said this partnership is one of BEDCO’s mandates to develop Basotho enterprises by assisting in their establishment, promotion and growth.
She further said in its five year plan 2019/2025, BEDCO finds it important to corporate with other stakeholders in the country. She said just like other countries in the world, especially in Africa,
MSMEs are recognized as the best contributors in job creation and reduction of poverty. “Therefore, governments have realized the important role played by
this department in the countries’ economy,” she said. Penane noted that MSMEs are faced with certain challenges that hinder them from growing, such as access to finances.
She added that MSMEs lack requirements needed by financial departments to receive loans and this is because they are deemed unsuccessful and likely to fail to pay their credits, saying this MoU will spare the doubt.
Boliba Savings and Credit General Manager Phethang Mpota said as they venture into this new agreement with BEDCO, they had introduced a pitch competition in 2015 with the aim to support youth businesses.
” This is the second milestone on our aim to support MSMEs,” he said.
Mpota further said from that competition, only three businesses won and they were to be financed with M 300 000, he however regretted that only one survived.
He said they learnt from that competition that the winners were not well trained about business, saying he is hopeful that with this agreement businesses will endure the difficult times.
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