The Lesotho Competitiveness and Financial Inclusion Project, launched by the World Bank, aims to increase access to business support services and financial products for micro, small, and medium enterprises and entrepreneurs. The project, which began in 2022, focuses on supporting women and youth-owned businesses. To date, it has supported 464 micro, small, and medium enterprises, with 52 percent being women-led and 46 percent youth-led.
The project provides grants, mentoring on business models and plans, and monitoring over an "incubation" period to help enterprises scale up from start-up to an investable stage. One of the supported enterprises is Pay Lesotho, a fintech company founded by Lerato Masupha in 2020. Pay Lesotho integrates normal point-of-sale and mobile money to boost access to digital payments. With the support of the Lesotho Competitiveness and Financial Inclusion Project, Pay Lesotho has grown into one of Lesotho's leading fintech companies.
Pay Lesotho's CEO, Lerato Masupha, credits the project as being instrumental to their success. The grant helped the company develop and enhance their Digital Payment Platform, enabling businesses to accept payments through mobile money, bank cards, payment links, QR codes, and online payment gateways. The company has expanded to 13 full-time employees and created opportunities for agents, merchants, and business partners across the country.
The project also supports the training of enterprise support organizations (ESOs), which act as "entrepreneurship accelerators" and provide services and training to aspiring entrepreneurs. ESOs provide training and mentorship to selected enterprises and track their progress over a six-month incubation period. This support has helped enterprises like Gifted Hands, a carpentry and woodworking company founded by twin sisters Thato and Lerato Tśoeute.
Gifted Hands joined the program with skepticism but found it eye-opening. The ESO, Eagle Consultancy, helped them refine their business model, remove bottlenecks affecting payments and delivery, and clear their backlog. The company used the grant to procure stock and purchase new equipment, resulting in a 30 percent increase in cash flow.
Another enterprise, JuliGerm, combines artificial intelligence, satellite Earth observation, remote sensing, and spatial analytics to transform complex land and environmental data into practical decision-making intelligence. Founder Qoane Mothibeli joined the program while his enterprise was still at the ideation stage and conducted two successful pilots during his incubation.
The Lesotho Competitiveness and Financial Inclusion Project has enabled access to approximately $2.5 million in finance and created 2,100 jobs. The project has also established seven commercial farms, supported firms in the textile sector, and digitized government to business services. Key achievements include supporting 464 micro, small, and medium enterprises, with 52 percent being women-led and 46 percent youth-led.
Key points
- The project has supported 464 micro, small, and medium enterprises, enabling access to approximately $2.5 million in finance and creating 2,100 jobs.
