By Kefiloe Kajane
Ntṧiuoa Makoae is a bachelor’s degrees in education holder from the National University of Lesotho who has now morphed into an entrepreneur of note.
Makoae is the owner of dairy company Boiphihlelo (Pty) Ltd which produces yoghurt, fruit juice and cheese.
Speaking to theReporter this week, Makoae said initially business was never on her mind but when the opportunity represented itself to go on a business training at UNESCO she took it with both hands.
She said the training focused on graduates that wanted to start business and that is where she fell in love with entrepreneurship.
She indicated that she realised that milk is one of the products that Basotho have and many of them just sell it.
“I realised that we do not have dairy products made in the country, except for people who sell fresh milk, so I thought to myself why don’t I make some dairy products.
“I started with yoghurt and juice; although we were still small, many people loved our products. Our packaging was not that perfect during that period but we were spurred on by how Basotho loved and supported us regardless.
“Those first years in business were very tough but with time our branding improved and our business started booming even more,” she said.
She further explained that their main challenge as dairy producers is that there are some ingredients are not available in the country, and that becomes costly for them.
She said they are currently only available in Maseru but it is their hope that soon they will have depots around the country and hopefully even internationally.
“We are delighted with the fact that Basotho choose to support us despite the fact that there are many big dairy products; we appreciate that support.
“We are soon going to introduce our cheese and we are convinced that Basotho are going to love it,” she said.
She said their biggest motivation is to employ many people in the hope of beating the unemployment in the country.
