Africa-Press – Lesotho. Youth unemployment. It is a problem that has haunted every government that has been in charge of Lesotho in recent years. To address the challenge, in 2014 Standard Lesotho Bank, in partnership with the Revenue Services Lesotho (RSL), and the Basotho Enterprises Development Corporation (BEDCO) set up the
Bacha Entrepreneurship Project (BEP). Its purpose was to empower youths to start and run successful enterprises, thereby cutting youth unemployment in Lesotho.
Nine years after the project was launched, those behind the programme can look back with a sense of satisfaction at what they have achieved. They say the project has made significant gains in creating jobs among youths in Lesotho.
“Our main initiative was not to offer jobs to people but to empower them to come up with solid businesses,” Manyathela Kheleli, the marketing and public relations manager at Standard Lesotho Bank, said.
“We are now in the third phase of the project.
” He said business ideas are assessed by experts. Kheleli said when businesses are ready for operation, the bank then offers them seed capital to get started.
This is done with the understanding that the project owners will not only create jobs but create opportunities to create more jobs. “So far, the project has been very successful,” he said.
About 17 youth projects have received a whopping M6 billion. “56 other youths were employed in these projects,” Kheleli said. Earlier this year, 10 new projects which are still at the incubation stage were funded.
Kheleli said once the businesses are operational, they are also going to employ more youths thereby addressing youth unemployment. “This number is going to have more impact since it is the first time we have awarded this large number,” he said.
Given the current situation in the country which includes a weakening economy and escalating unemployment rate, Kheleli said this initiative “is significant because it does not only create jobs but also help the employees support their extended families with the revenue they get from those projects”.
He said they have other projects which contribute indirectly in the job creation process which include hook-up dinners. However, he said they do not have a clear estimation of its impact on job creation.
Kheleli said the project that they have been monitoring so far is the Bacha Entrepreneurship Project. Kheleli said during the Covid-19 era, they launched another project with the aim to help businesses which were badly affected by the pandemic.
He said they injected M1 million in the project. This was a clear demonstration that they understood that there were Basotho businesses which had collapsed due to the pandemic.
Kheleli said they were also aware that there were people who were retrenched from their jobs and the owners ended up using stock for personal use. He said they were able to help seven businesses to recover.
“Those businesses were able to recover and went on to hire more people,” he said. Kheleli said many of these businesses were in the retail, agriculture and services sectors.
“We believe these kinds of interventions contribute towards job creation,” he said.
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