Only M15m disbursed under Covid relief fund

MASERU – OUT of the M50 million allocated by the government under the Covid-19 relief fund, only M15 million has been disbursed to deserving companies.

This is according to the Ministry of Trade. The ministry was working closely with the Private Sector Competitiveness and Economic Diversification Project (PSCEDP) in disbursing the funds. Principal Secretary for Cabinet, Kabelo Lehora, said most businesses were struggling as a direct result of the Covid-19 pandemic.

He said the government introduced the Covid-19 relief fund to help small and medium businesses. Lehora said the funds did not reach all relevant Basotho, a matter which was of great concern to the affected parties.

The Project Manager of PSCEDP, Chaba Mokuku, said his office has been working with so many ministries over the years to ensure that service delivery is smooth.

“After Covid-19 knocked, the government allocated about M50 million as a relief fund to small and medium enterprises,” Mokuku said.

He said they are still waiting for the outstanding balance of M35 million. He said they managed to assist 1 018 formal sector businesses covering all the 10 districts of Lesotho where M9 million was issued.

He said M5 million was further issued to 11 455 informal sector businesses. Mokuku said two requests for the release of the relief fund for disbursement to the private sector were made to the Ministry of Finance in July 2021 and October 2021.

However, he said his office has still not received the funds. He said the request made in July 2021 amounting to M990 000 was due to be disbursed to 132 formal sector businesses. He further said the request for October 2021 amounted to M1.8 million was due to be allocated to 33 formal sector businesses and 3 003 informal sector businesses.

Mokuku said there are still 319 applications amounting to M1.9 million that have been received from the formal sector businesses, duly registered and licensed with relevant authorities but have not been supported.

He said the businesses have not been supported as they do not have financial statements for the financial year ending either in March 2017/2018 or March 2018/2019 which are key requirements for receipt of support.

’Makopano Mosakeng, from Lesotho Enterprise Assistance Program (LEAP), said for formal sector businesses to qualify for this fund, they should have been registered before 2020 and should have been operating for at least two years.

She said most of the informal sector businesses failed to qualify because their registered names were different from their M-pesa or Ecocash registered names which were the mode of payment.
She said these are some of the reasons for the delay of payments.

The secretary of Thibella Zone Street Vendors, ’Mareni Mabothoane, said they submitted their list in 2020 at the Ministry of Small Businesses and the lists were delivered to the PSCEDP. Mabothoane said in their zone, the list of street vendors was about 600 but only about 200 received the M500 relief fund.

She said their main concern is how the names were selected since they had only one list. She said the explanation that most of the informal sector business names were not matching with their payment accounts was not true. She said they will do anything in their power to ensure that they get the funds.

Refiloe Mpobole