MASERU – WANT to start a business? Then just go ahead and do it.
That is the simple advice from the Senior Academic Manager at Limkokwing University of Creative Technology ’Mateboho Moorosi. Moorosi was speaking at the Limkokwing University’s Entrepreneurship Day last week.
“People should make use of their phones since now people focus more on their phones,” Moorosi said, adding such devices can be used for advertising.
One does not need a million maloti to start a business, she said.
She said the university students must grab opportunities to start businesses rather than walk the streets of Maseru looking for jobs.
“Instead they should open their own businesses and employ others to help in the growth of the country’s economy,” Moorosi said.
He said the university also shapes them to create connections with industries. The Basotho Enterprise Development Corporation (Bedco)’s Small and Medium Enterprises (SME) Access to Finance Expert, ’Mahalieo Nyanguru, said they have created opportunities for young people to start their own businesses as a way of improving or bettering their lives.
Nyanguru said they also do this as a way of alleviating poverty as well as a way of decreasing the unemployment rate in Lesotho. Nyanguru said they are happy that the Limkokwing University had invited them to the day.
She said as Bedco they incubate small businesses so that they can grow bigger and also support them to have access to the market and finance.
“If one wants to start a business then our door is widely open to offer training and also for consultation,” Nyanguru said.
She said Limkokwing University “does a good job to train its students on ways to start businesses”.
’Mateboho Makara, who is the client services representative from the First National Bank (FNB), said their doors are always open to assist people with loans to start businesses. Makara said if one wants a loan they should have a vision of their business so that they cannot misuse the loan and then struggle to pay it back.
She also said they have ATM facilities that minimises charges for small businesses, since they noticed that people want to start their businesses for a living. She said the bank has donated a million maloti to help small businesses that were affected by the Covid-19 pandemic.
Phomotso Sematlane, the Lesotho National Development Corporation (LNDC)’s Investment Promotion Officer, said the LNDC is the main parastatal of the government charged with the implementation of the country’s industrial development policies.
Sematlane said Limkokwing University “does exactly what the country does, in the growth of the economy”.
“You are training them to open their own businesses and help them create job opportunities,” Sematlane said.
She said it’s high time students start having a vision of their businesses because they are there to assist them.
Rapitso Thabeng from the Ministry of Education said the ministry’s role is to see everyone who graduated from the Limkokwing University opening their own businesses to end poverty.
Advocate Tefo Macheli, the vice-chancellor at Limkokwing University, said the entrepreneurship day is a big day for the university.
“The Lesotho government used to spend a lot of money to take students abroad therefore the LUCT has to fill the gap to open the school for them,” Macheli said.
The registrar, Moroka Hoohlo, said as a university they believe that what they are doing is to shape students to open their own businesses once they complete their studies. He said the university trains them to have self-esteem to start their own businesses.
“They should not worry about the high rate of unemployment,” Hoohlo said.
Sebabatso Mothabeng