{"id":29682,"date":"2023-06-07T12:46:02","date_gmt":"2023-06-07T12:46:02","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/all-news\/rolling-back-youth-unemployment"},"modified":"2023-06-07T12:56:27","modified_gmt":"2023-06-07T12:56:27","slug":"rolling-back-youth-unemployment","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/all-news\/rolling-back-youth-unemployment","title":{"rendered":"Rolling back youth unemployment"},"content":{"rendered":"

Africa-Press – Lesotho. <\/strong><\/span>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<\/p>\n

Bacha Entrepreneurship Project (BEP). Its purpose was to empower youths to start and run successful enterprises, thereby cutting youth unemployment in Lesotho.<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

\u201cOur main initiative was not to offer jobs to people but to empower them to come up with solid businesses,\u201d Manyathela Kheleli, the marketing and public relations manager at Standard Lesotho Bank, said.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe are now in the third phase of the project.<\/p>\n

\u201d 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.<\/p>\n

This is done with the understanding that the project owners will not only create jobs but create opportunities to create more jobs. \u201cSo far, the project has been very successful,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

About 17 youth projects have received a whopping M6 billion. \u201c56 other youths were employed in these projects,\u201d Kheleli said. Earlier this year, 10 new projects which are still at the incubation stage were funded.<\/p>\n

Kheleli said once the businesses are operational, they are also going to employ more youths thereby addressing youth unemployment. \u201cThis number is going to have more impact since it is the first time we have awarded this large number,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Given the current situation in the country which includes a weakening economy and escalating unemployment rate, Kheleli said this initiative \u201cis 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\u201d.<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

\u201cThose businesses were able to recover and went on to hire more people,\u201d he said. Kheleli said many of these businesses were in the retail, agriculture and services sectors.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe believe these kinds of interventions contribute towards job creation,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

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

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). […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":84,"featured_media":29681,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2,5,7,8],"tags":[233,246,245,1924],"class_list":["post-29682","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-all-news","category-economy","category-head-lines","category-homepage-english","tag-africa-press","tag-africa-press-lesotho","tag-lesotho","tag-lesotho-bank"],"yoast_head":"\nRolling back youth unemployment - Lesotho<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Youth unemployment. 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