August 14, 2026
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The Competitiveness and Financial Inclusion (CAFI) is a six-year project of the Ministry of Trade, Industry, Business Development and Tourism. The Government of Lesotho has received a loan from the International Development Association (IDA) of the World Bank to implement the CAFI Project. The Project Development Objective (PDO) is to “increase access to business support services and financial products targeted at Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises (MSMEs) and entrepreneurs, especially women and youth”. The project is targeted at enabling access to financial products especially women and youth. The project implementation commenced in 2022 and is expected to end in 2028. CAFI is funded through a loan of $45Million, with a supporting grant of $7.5Million totalling $52,5Million. There is a further grant of $950,000 received specifically for the horticulture initiative, from the India, Brazil, South Africa (IBSA) Fund.
CAFI is looking to establish a venture capital fund to help ensure investment in those businesses that show traction to be supported to become corporates. This is for young people to grow their businesses to have global footprint as an engine to grow entrepreneurship in the country.
The Lesotho Enterprises Assistance Programme (LEAP) is a matching grant scheme that has been designed to strengthen the business capacity of privately owned Basotho–owned MSMEs through financial and technical support.
1. Number of enterprises benefitting from private sector initiatives of the programme (Of which are women-owned, of which are youth-owned);
2. Value of financing (seed funding, grants, partial credit guarantee, MSME resilience funds) accessed by enterprises through the programmes (Of which are women-owned);
3. Percentage of enterprises supported by the programmes with increased revenue (Of which are women-owned, of which are youth-owned); and
4. Percentage of enterprises supported by the programmes with increased employment (Of which are women-owned, of which are youth-owned.
A six-year project of the Government of Lesotho implemented under the Ministry of Trade, Industry, Business Development and Tourism with financial support from the World Bank and the India, Brazil and South Africa (IBSA) Fund.
PSCEDP II was another government project, implemented with the financial support from the World Bank which closed on the 30th June 2022. While CAFI started in July 2022 and scheduled to be closed in June 2028.
LEAP is a matching grant scheme which supports enterprises, business associations and selected training institutions for upto 80%, 75% and 80% respectively. While CAFI Project that has a number of programmes including LEAP.
CAFI offers direct grants, capacity building through the Lesotho Enterprise Assistance Programme, Entrepreneurship Hub and Seed Financing Facility, Horticulture Incubation Hub and Training Centre and Disaster Risk Financing.
Competitiveness and Financial Inclusion Project is the intervention of the Government of Lesotho to promote sustainable private sector participation in economic development and financial inclusion.
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