{"id":4319,"date":"2021-10-11T12:31:03","date_gmt":"2021-10-11T12:31:03","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/all-news\/lesothos-own-crunchy-crackers"},"modified":"2021-10-11T13:03:00","modified_gmt":"2021-10-11T13:03:00","slug":"lesothos-own-crunchy-crackers","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/all-news\/lesothos-own-crunchy-crackers","title":{"rendered":"Lesotho\u2019s own crunchy crackers"},"content":{"rendered":"

Africa-Press<\/a> – Lesotho<\/a>. <\/strong><\/span>KAMOHELO Pakela, a National University of Lesotho (NUL) student, is producing crunchy corn crackers which have become a delight for both the young and old.<\/p>\n

The crispy delicious crackers are made from maize, the most abundant crop Lesotho produces. \u201cThese crackers are so popular, we have since stopped doing anything else other than making them,\u201d Pakela said.<\/p>\n

His crackers, fondly called Masimba by the locals after the South African potato chips called Simba, come in three tantalising tastes: Cheese, Smoked BBQ and Sticky BBQ.<\/p>\n

His brand is called Boleng. \u201cWe are capable of making hard and brittle crackers or just soft crackers,\u201d he said. \u201cHowever, we choose to be somewhere in between.<\/p>\n

That is because we realised the market doesn\u2019t have anything in between. \u201d
\nThe story of Pakela starts while he was still in high school. Entrepreneurship was already burning inside him.<\/p>\n

\u201cAt that time, I was already selling ice-cream in cooler bags.<\/p>\n

\u201d However, something would happen that would set him on a windy route to where he is today.<\/p>\n

\u201cAfter finishing my high school, I performed well so my former high school, Hope English Medium in Mafeteng, gave me a piece job.<\/p>\n

\u201d
\nHe was happy, not necessarily because he got a piece job but because of what that meant.<\/p>\n

He would use the proceeds to fund his business ventures. At one time he was milling around Maseru when he spotted an ice-cream dispensing machine. Remember he previously relied on cooler bags.<\/p>\n

\u201cWow!\u201d He thought. He could use that to make a better product with the money he got from his piece job and that which came from his mother.<\/p>\n

\u201cI bought the ice-cream machine and popcorn machine and opened a spaza shop.<\/p>\n

The proceeds from this business would later make it easier for me to buy two more ice-cream machines. \u201d
\nHe ended up with three of the machines. Fate would put him at the NUL but that didn\u2019t kill the entrepreneur in him.<\/p>\n

\u201cAt one point I was running three ice-cream businesses at the same time, one in Roma, one in Mafeteng and one in Mohale\u2019s Hoek,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

As if from nowhere, an idea that would put him where he is today dropped in his mind. He was eating maize-based crackers of the kind he is making. \u201cI was like, I have heard people saying these things are made from maize.<\/p>\n

\u201d
\nSo if they are made from maize which is so well produced in Lesotho as the staple food, \u201cwhy the heck aren\u2019t we making them?\u201d he asked himself.<\/p>\n

Well, that would put his thinking abilities into an overdrive. \u201cI became even more determined by the day to make these crackers. \u201d
\nHaving an idea is one thing.<\/p>\n

Pursuing that idea is quite another. In fact the so-called intellectuals will sit with an idea for years, analyzing its advantages and disadvantages. Innovators do it right away.<\/p>\n

They will learn about its shortcomings and address them along the way. He, of course, is on the side of innovators. So, he took some of the money he was making out of his spaza shops and bought the cracker making machine.<\/p>\n

Once the machine was there, he started hitting the wall as its \u201cdisadvantages\u201d were laid bare before him. \u201cI realised that the machine I had was not even enough.<\/p>\n

There was still more things to buy. \u201d He didn\u2019t expect he was going to have to learn so much about the process. But learn he did. An entrepreneur at heart, when he realised that his crackers business was not going to start anytime soon, he was already cooking up something.<\/p>\n

\u201cI realised that no one was selling pizza in Roma.<\/p>\n

\u201d
\nIt was a gap in the market he wouldn\u2019t miss. Almost immediately, he started making and selling pizza. When students vanished from Roma, and the ice-cream season came to an end, something occurred to him. He bought a machine which he had never used.<\/p>\n

Armed with the proceeds from his selling of ice-cream and pizza, he could now find the missing links for the crackers production system and he started.<\/p>\n

He secured a mini-factory at Roma and started producing right away. Needless to say, his business was an immediate success. Of course he wasn\u2019t introducing a different product.<\/p>\n

He was bringing a product that Basotho were already familiar with and loved, the only difference was that it was now being made in Lesotho. That was the killer moment.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Africa-Press – Lesotho. KAMOHELO Pakela, a National University of Lesotho (NUL) student, is producing crunchy corn crackers which have become a delight for both the young and old. The crispy delicious crackers are made from maize, the most abundant crop Lesotho produces. \u201cThese crackers are so popular, we have since stopped doing anything else other […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":84,"featured_media":4318,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2,5,8,16],"tags":[233,246,833,245],"class_list":["post-4319","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-all-news","category-economy","category-homepage-english","category-twitter","tag-africa-press","tag-africa-press-lesotho","tag-crackers","tag-lesotho"],"yoast_head":"\nLesotho\u2019s own crunchy crackers - Lesotho<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"KAMOHELO Pakela, a National University of Lesotho (NUL) student, is producing crunchy corn crackers which have become a ...\" \/>\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\/lesothos-own-crunchy-crackers\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Lesotho\u2019s own crunchy crackers\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"KAMOHELO Pakela, a National University of Lesotho (NUL) student, is producing crunchy corn crackers which have become a ...\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/all-news\/lesothos-own-crunchy-crackers\" \/>\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=\"2021-10-11T12:31:03+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2021-10-11T13:03:00+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/sites\/62\/2021\/10\/img-616435e938cc0.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1900\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"700\" \/>\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=\"4 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\/lesothos-own-crunchy-crackers#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/all-news\/lesothos-own-crunchy-crackers\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"cfeditoren\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/#\/schema\/person\/068c7ab4e9634ae78ec5d54ec46598bb\"},\"headline\":\"Lesotho\u2019s own crunchy crackers\",\"datePublished\":\"2021-10-11T12:31:03+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2021-10-11T13:03:00+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/all-news\/lesothos-own-crunchy-crackers\"},\"wordCount\":751,\"commentCount\":0,\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/all-news\/lesothos-own-crunchy-crackers#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/sites\/62\/2021\/10\/img-616435e938cc0.jpg\",\"keywords\":[\"Africa Press\",\"Africa Press-Lesotho\",\"crackers\",\"Lesotho\"],\"articleSection\":[\"all news\",\"economy\",\"homepage-english\",\"twitter\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/all-news\/lesothos-own-crunchy-crackers#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/all-news\/lesothos-own-crunchy-crackers\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/all-news\/lesothos-own-crunchy-crackers\",\"name\":\"Lesotho\u2019s own crunchy crackers - 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