The Ministry of Small Business Development, Co-operatives and Marketing held a round table meeting to discuss policy formulation processes and access to finance at the event held at the Ministry’s Boardroom in Maseru on Monday.
When opening the discussion, the Minister of Small Business Development, Cooperative and Marketing, Chief Thesele Maseribane said the aim of this discussion was to ensure that views and opinions of individuals involved in this co-operatives sector are gathered so they can be combined into the policy.
Chief Maseribane said in order for small businesses and cooperatives to grow, there has to be policies that regulate and help them to grow not to hinder their growth, saying Basotho have measures that assist their business to see possible growth.
He said nonexistence of policies cause some business in this sector not to grow, adding that co-operatives have recommended for the establishment of the Cooperative Bank, however saying the absence of policies has made it difficult and slowing the implementation of the idea.
Also speaking, the Economic Advisor to the Prime Minister, Dr Maluke Letete said policies were formulates and will continue to be formulated but all seemed in vain as delivery of services to Basotho is poor, saying it is high time that the government finds other solutions towards this problem so to improve service delivery in the country.
Dr Letete said it is time that Basotho educated about stock markets so to have access to finance rather than focusing on getting funding in the form of loans, saying the stock markets will allow circulation of money among people with business mind before it can go to the banks.
Again, he noted that the government can provide guarantee for small business to access finance from the banks, however saying banks have interest in supplying short-term loans and this hinders many small businesses from accessing financing.
Similarly, the participants from Blessing Saving and Credit Cooperative Service, Mr. Sylvester Amoako said the Ministry needs to also look at the cost of finance not only access to finance, saying the cost of finance is one of the obstacles for small business to access finance hence hampers their growth.
On the same note, Mr. Teboho Kobeli from the Afro-Expo Textile Factory said Lesotho could prosper in everything if there is a strong political will, saying Lesotho need interventions regarding youth unemployment.
He expressed concern that similar meetings were held before with government officials hence appealed to the government to commit to its promises and speed up the process to draw policies and ensure their implementation so to improve service delivery.
Also present at the meeting included representatives from the Central Delivery Unit in the Prime Minister’s office, different cooperatives and small businesses as well as the ministry’s officials.
By Staff Reporter: Noliwe Velaphe