{"id":28898,"date":"2023-05-19T13:21:44","date_gmt":"2023-05-19T13:21:44","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/all-news\/three-youth-run-businesses-win-funding"},"modified":"2023-05-19T13:40:54","modified_gmt":"2023-05-19T13:40:54","slug":"three-youth-run-businesses-win-funding","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/all-news\/three-youth-run-businesses-win-funding","title":{"rendered":"Three youth-run businesses win funding"},"content":{"rendered":"

Africa-Press – Lesotho. <\/strong><\/span>THREE companies have won M10 000 each for their best outstanding project plans under the Youth Development Project this week. The companies are Qalakheng Evergreen Funds, Happy C&J Village Farms, and Our Verbal Farm. The Youth Development Project is sponsored by the Sekhametsi Consortium, Basotho Enterprise Development Corporation (BEDCO), and Lesotho Post Bank.<\/p>\n

The BEDCO CEO, Ts\u030cepang Tlali, said his organisation\u2019s Strategic Plan 2020-2025 focuses on contributing towards the National Strategic Development Plan (NSDP) II through the first key priority area of enhancing inclusive and sustainable economic growth and private sector job creation.<\/p>\n

\u201cThrough this strategy, BEDCO aims to address inclusive and economic growth and private sector job creation,\u201d Tlali said.<\/p>\n

\u201cBEDCO has a target of 10 000 jobs per annum through the establishment, development and growth of Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises (MSMEs),\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

The strategy has also taken into consideration the effects of the Covid-19 pandemic and the growing youth unemployment rate in the country. \u201d He said the Youth Development Project was initiated to specifically focus on entrepreneurship development of youth.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe Youth Development Project builds on the BEP (Bacha Entrepreneurship Project) and PED projects by facilitating the establishment of enterprises among the youth through various interventions towards creating sustainable job creation for Basotho youth,\u201d Tlali said.<\/p>\n

He said the project has been following streams to access the finance incubation mentorship. He said the project targets existing youth-owned and managed businesses and non-youth businesses in the agricultural sector which intends to prioritise youth for employment opportunities.<\/p>\n

Tlali said businesses should demonstrate high potential for growth and sustainability and their need for funding to accelerate their growth. He said the agricultural sector is one of the NSDP II priority sectors which have been chosen because it was seen to be a more resilient sector especially during the Covid-19 pandemic.<\/p>\n

He said farmers often struggle to meet the required production standards, required quantity, and good quality products because of lack of resources and business skills.<\/p>\n

Tlali said the project therefore aims to enhance sustainability and competitiveness of enterprises that support youth development either through employment or entrepreneurship.<\/p>\n

He said the project will provide interest-free revolving loans annually starting with M300 000 in the first phase of the project and follow the process.<\/p>\n

Sekhametsi allocated M300 000 in a bid to support youths directly or indirectly through other businesses that could make more impact than channelling funds directly to the youth.<\/p>\n

Tlali said the funds will be paid out by the bank into the incumbents\u2019 bank accounts upon approval and authorisation. \u201cThe funds will be monitored by an incubator during the incubation programme,\u201d Tlali said.<\/p>\n

\u2019Mabasia Lepota from the Ministry of Trade said she was grateful to all those who made the initiative a success.<\/p>\n

Lepota said she was thankful to those who have been championing the development of the private sector through the numerous programmes that have successfully been implemented over the past few years, especially for the youth.<\/p>\n

She said she was overwhelmed by the contribution that Sekhametsi Consortium was playing in the national agenda to eradicate unemployment and poverty among the youth.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe government of Lesotho is indeed indebted to you,\u201d Lepota said.<\/p>\n

She said they could only hope and encourage other large local businesses through their Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) to contribute to the growth of the private sector, promotion of competition and innovation as well as contribution to economic growth.<\/p>\n

The Lesotho Post Bank Managing Director, Molefi Leqhaoe, said they appreciate what is done for the three youth businesses and it is their wish to see this project growing bigger and better.<\/p>\n

For More News And Analysis About Lesotho<\/a> Follow Africa-Press<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Africa-Press – Lesotho. THREE companies have won M10 000 each for their best outstanding project plans under the Youth Development Project this week. The companies are Qalakheng Evergreen Funds, Happy C&J Village Farms, and Our Verbal Farm. The Youth Development Project is sponsored by the Sekhametsi Consortium, Basotho Enterprise Development Corporation (BEDCO), and Lesotho Post […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":84,"featured_media":28897,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2,5,7],"tags":[233,246,245,1428],"class_list":["post-28898","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-all-news","category-economy","category-head-lines","tag-africa-press","tag-africa-press-lesotho","tag-lesotho","tag-post-bank"],"yoast_head":"\nThree youth-run businesses win funding - Lesotho<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"THREE companies have won M10 000 each for their best outstanding project plans under the Youth Development Project this ...\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/all-news\/three-youth-run-businesses-win-funding\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Three youth-run businesses win funding\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"THREE companies have won M10 000 each for their best outstanding project plans under the Youth Development Project this ...\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/all-news\/three-youth-run-businesses-win-funding\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Lesotho\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/AfricaPressTunisiaa\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2023-05-19T13:21:44+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2023-05-19T13:40:54+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/sites\/62\/2023\/05\/postQueueImg_1684487379.35.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"768\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"461\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"cfeditoren\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"cfeditoren\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"3 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/all-news\/three-youth-run-businesses-win-funding#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/all-news\/three-youth-run-businesses-win-funding\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"cfeditoren\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/#\/schema\/person\/068c7ab4e9634ae78ec5d54ec46598bb\"},\"headline\":\"Three youth-run businesses win funding\",\"datePublished\":\"2023-05-19T13:21:44+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2023-05-19T13:40:54+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/all-news\/three-youth-run-businesses-win-funding\"},\"wordCount\":613,\"commentCount\":0,\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/all-news\/three-youth-run-businesses-win-funding#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/sites\/62\/2023\/05\/postQueueImg_1684487379.35.jpg\",\"keywords\":[\"Africa Press\",\"Africa Press-Lesotho\",\"Lesotho\",\"Post Bank\"],\"articleSection\":[\"all news\",\"economy\",\"head lines\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/all-news\/three-youth-run-businesses-win-funding#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/all-news\/three-youth-run-businesses-win-funding\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/all-news\/three-youth-run-businesses-win-funding\",\"name\":\"Three youth-run businesses win funding - 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