By Seleoe Nonyane
Standard Lesotho Bank (SLB), the Basotho Enterprise Development Corporation (BEDCO) and Lesotho Revenue Authority (LRA)this week signed a memorandum to implement the latest phases of the Bacha Entrepreneurship Project (BEP).
The three formally launched phase three and phase four of the BEP. The project was first introduced in 2014.
The purpose of the project is to create business opportunities and to instil an entrepreneurial spirit and culture in youth towards job creation, poverty reduction and the reduction of social vulnerability.
The chief executive officer of BEDCO, Idia Penane, told the media this week that the initiative was done to address high youth unemployment which according to the World Bank, unemployment of the youth population aged between 15 and 24 years, has been increasing faster in Africa than other parts of the world.
“The number of university and college graduates increase from year to year and most of these graduates are not able to get employment”, Penane stated.
The project will target youth with Cambridge Overseas School Certificate (COSC) or Lesotho General Certificate of Secondary Education (LGCSE) and existing youth enterprises with minimum of two years in operation across all sectors.
The implementation will capacitate 50 aspiring youth entrepreneurs and provide M2 million to at least 10 businesses through a business plan competition.
Penane explained that these businesses will the be incubated to ensure sustainability and growth.
“Ten Youth enterprises will be developed and an estimated 30 jobs created. This will go a long way in addressing the high rate of youth unemployment which has been exacerbated by the Covid-19 pandemic,” she said.
In his welcoming speech the chief executive officer for SLB Anton Nicolaisen, was grateful that as the “country we have passed the Covid-19 uncertainties although the country is still faced with the same old challenges in our economy which are, youth unemployment and very few opportunities for the youth to claim a stake in the economic development of Lesotho.”
Therefore, he observed, the partnership will ensure that it will assist deserving youth entrepreneurs to start and develop sustainable business because as the bank “we aspire to partner for growth.”
On the same occasion, the commissioner general for LRA Thabo Khasipe, shared the same sentiments indicating that the partnership will help the youth achieve their dreams in entrepreneurship. All while, help curve the high unemployment rate which will also go a long way in helping grow the economy of our country, he added.
Since 2014, the success rate of the project has been 70 percent and has generated 56 jobs.
Its has also provided 145 aspiring entrepreneurs with entrepreneurial skills.
