FOURTEEN Enterprise Support Organisations (ESOs) will be in South Africa for a week-long capacity-building and study tour.
The ESOs are being prepared to provide incubation and support services to startups as well as innovative small and medium enterprises (SMEs)) funded under the Competitiveness and Financial Inclusion (CAFI)’s Entrepreneurship Hub and Seed Financing Facility.
Five of the first group of nine ESOs that have already participated in the training are now working with the first stream of 50 entrepreneurs who are part of the hub.
The new group, leaving for South Africa this week (Thursday), brings the number of ESOs under the hub to twenty three.
The ESOs will play a critical role in training, mentoring, coaching and advising the 500 businesses that will receive funding under the hub over the next five years.
Mamashiya Ntsepeng Tsita-Tikiso, the manager of the Entrepreneurship Hub and Seed Financing Facility, says the training is meant to familiarize the ESOs with international standards so they help the young businesses flourish.
“The training is critical because incubation and business support services are still a fledgling sector in Lesotho,” Tsita-Tikiso says, adding that the training will include tours to three ESOs in South Africa.
“The idea is to raise their capacity so that their services are aligned with international standards and trends. It’s essentially the training of trainers.”
The Entrepreneurship Hub and Seed Financing Facility seeks to provide seed funding to 500 start-ups predominantly owned by women and youth.
The $7 000 grant per enterprise is then followed by six months of incubation in which each business receives training, mentorship, coaching and advisory service from an ESO.
During the incubation, the entrepreneurs will be capacitated with skills in finance, business strategy, marketing, operations, branding, human resources and other services.
Tsita-Tikiso says the enterprise support service component of the hub has been designed to empower ESOs to independently “provide complete incubation services to startups”.
“Unlike in the past when the incubation was quite narrow in scope, the current group of ESOs provide a broader array of services and expertise to the businesses. It’s a complete incubation package, from technical expertise to basic mentorship.”
Tsita-Tikiso says the experiences of the five ESOs working with the initial 50 businesses have helped CAFI gain new insights into the challenges faced by the incubators and the skills they need to excel.
“The first group has been resilient in the face of challenges and the lessons they have gathered have been invaluable in helping us build a vibrant ecosystem of business support and incubation services.”
She said the importance of the twenty three ESOs under the hub goes beyond incubating the 500 businesses under the project.
“The idea is to build a strong business incubation sector in Lesotho so that they provide services to other businesses across the country.”
Funded by the World Bank and the Lesotho government, the USD52.5 million CAFI project is founded on three mutually reinforcing pillars: Enhancing Financial Inclusion and Resilience of MSMEs, Scaling Support for Entrepreneurship and MSMEs, and Project Management Support.
The Financial Inclusion and Resilience of MSMEs seeks to create an enabling environment by building strong government-to-business digital systems, improving access to finance and building financial instruments.
The Scaling Support for Entrepreneurship and MSMEs component focuses on building the entrepreneurial ecosystem, supporting the digitisation of small businesses financing youth-owned start-ups, up-scaling of skills as well as helping businesses participate in the entire value chain and develop sustainable markets in horticulture and textile.
Through Lesotho Enterprise Assistance Programme (LEAP) the project aims to improve the competitiveness of businesses by providing matching grants which will, among others, assist businesses to adopt digital and green technologies.
The Project Management Support includes project coordination and implementation while improving citizen engagement.