By Neo Kolane
The Basotho Enterprises Development Corporation (BEDCO) in collaboration with Nedbank Lesotho this week celebrated women who play a role in entrepreneur in order to develop the economy.
The celebration saw women share ideas on tips and skills in building business as a measure to deal with stereotypes in business development.
The resident representative of the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) in Lesotho, Betty Wabunoha, said gender stereotype is a generalised view or perception about characteristics or roles that are expected to be intimately confessed and socially performed by women and men.
Wabunoha said these gender stereotypes can be as they limit women and men’s capacity to develop their personal abilities, pursue their professional careers by making good choices in their lives.
She said women in Lesotho are more educated and more likely to start businesses compared to men and noted that about 53 percent of micro, small and medium enterprises (MSME’s) in Lesotho are women-led.
“Stereotyping is still affecting women businesses. Women are discriminated against on the basis of sex, dress code, society expectations and the environment in which they live in.
“The stereotype influences the decisions, timing and the type of the economic activity that women get to be involved in in Lesotho,” she observed.
She added: “In Lesotho, the average age of woman entrepreneurs is about 14 years.”
At the occasion, the manager of small and medium enterprises at Nedbank Lesotho, Thato Phohlo, said women tend to enter into businesses like construction and hospitality that are regarded as men conquered.
Phohlo said Nedbank Lesotho is interested in the way women venture into business industries which are male dominated and get challenged by encountering some obstacles.
“In the presence of the bank and its knowledge, there are people who are allocated and dedicated to assist entrepreneurs. When an entrepreneurs build a friendship with their bankers, they are able to showcase when they start business all the way through,” Phohlo said.
She said some women entrepreneurs rarely know anything when they get to the bank therefore they need to build friendships with the bankers.
It is at this event where the chief executive officer and founder of Mahlakapese Guest House, Matṧeliso Mokuoane, noted that as a small catering business she encountered a problem of theft as she sought to grow her business.
At one point, she told the occasion, her business collapsed. At the time, she ran a restaurant while also being one of the biggest catering companies in the northern part of the country.
She explained that she obtained a large portion of funding from the financial institution which boosted its growth. The Nedbank Lesotho advised her to avoid using cash to buy equipment but save and open a call account.
A call deposit account is a bank account for investment funds that offers the advantages of both a savings and a checking account. She urged that banks require collaterals in order to obtain loans to growing businesses.
Collateral is an item of value that a lender can seize from a borrower if he or she fails to repay a loan according to the agreed terms
Mokuoane said her call account helped her start her business.
