Africa-Press – Lesotho. In commemoration of Women’s month, BAM Consultancy Incubation hub celebrated women who attended the incubation program that was intended to equip women
entrepreneurs with business skills. The programme was sponsored by Basotho Enterprise Development Corporation (BEDCO). BAM Consultancy Incubation Program Manager Rosta Ntilane ‘Mako explained that the
incubation program started in October 2020 and it was expected to take six months which were exceeded due to Covid-19 challenges. She further said BAM
Consultancy Incubation has four levels being, Start Your Business (SYB), Grow Your Business (GYB), Expand the Business (EYB and Invest for Your Business
(IYB). She noted that all the four levels are optional depending on what an
incubatee needs but above all what guides them is the assessment results. She further highlighted that they train, coach and mentor incubates focusing on
administration, marketing which goes hand-in-hand with sales, financial management, and Human resource management. “We train all kinds of businesses since administration and growth is
expected in every organization,” she said through this program, four Small Micro Enterprises (SMEs) in Lesotho managed to hire additional employees and
that contributed to the economy of the country. She continued to say that BEDCO played a major role as they funded this four SMEs with resources which contributed positively to the growth of their businesses, hence
improvement in sales generation. Some of these SMEs managed to attend international competitions, which is also an achievement for Basotho businesses to compete internationally.
She said in terms of Business management, all the four SMEs improved because through the incubation programme, they now have Websites, administration, Marketing, Finance, Human Resource Policies and
guidelines already placed on their business portals where all their employees will access them. “I believe that if incubation can be supported in Lesotho,
the economy will improve relatively because SMEs are holding the bigger angle of Lesotho’s economy,” she said. ‘Mako said the major challenge that affected their program negatively was the advent of COVID-19 but
hastened to show that they reversely conducted 70% of their incubation program was online. She said at the end of this incubation program, the expectation was
to see growth of the businesses in general, specifically in terms of sales, administration, marketing, financial management and human resource management.
She pointed out that through her experience, one thing cutting across which causes business to fail within first years of inception is poor financial Management.
“That is followed by poor marketing or failing to choose suitable marketing platforms for a particular type of business and its target market,” ‘Mako stressed. One of the incubatees ‘Maneo
Mapharisa who is the Founder of Girls Coding Academy said BEDCO, through the 2020 Business Plan Competition, provided her with an incubator. She said Girls
Coding Academy is an organization that seeks to equip 80% girls and 20% boys with basic computer skills, Robotics, 3D Printing, computer science concepts
and enable them to engage experimentally in application development. Mapharisa emphasized that BEDCO sponsored her with M100 000 for business trainings and
incubation, she commended the government on this part, saying this is a great investment and a remarkable support to entrepreneurs. “Even though only 10
participants won. 100 participants received training. I wish the government can have this kind of competitions and help more than 10 people in the batch of this
competition. We as start-ups give up on our entrepreneurship journey not because we are not capable to make the foundation strong and scale it up, but
we lack motivation,” Mapharisa noted. She said building a business requires various types of support such as planning, training and development, research support
and so on. She said the academy was given training, Business Policies and support even when the incubation period was over. The other incubate, Hape Marite Mphale – Founder of Black Hair – said at first she
did not comprehend the importance of having an incubator. She said as they were engaging and sharing their plans and visions, she learned that in business one
needs a guide, an external eye that has the ability to honestly and constructively scrutinize their way of doing things as they assist them to grow and improve.
Miss Jay Couture Managing Director Tšoanelo Jae Fuma said since she started the journey of incubation, she has learnt business management, policies formulation, marketing, financial assistance, inventory, expansion of
human resource, advanced recording and filing business records. She added they are in the process of learning more important things which they will share as
the program continues. Fuma while passing a message to women, as this month of Women’s month comes to an end, she said all women entrepreneurs should know that
they play a very important role of creating employment for many young people who would be without source of income and they are bringing hope in their lives.
