For the past two years, one of Lesotho’s young leaders Mrs Relebohile Hlabana-Ketsi from the National University of Lesotho (NUL) Department of Environmental Health, has been engaged in training unemployed graduates to start manufacturing businesses using existing technology (innovation through reverse engineering), as her community outreach.
The training series was successful, and many of trainees were NUL graduates. Mrs Ketsi went further to encourage local private sector to invest in these young people’s business ideas. This motivated one local savings institution to pledge to invest in youth business ideas, and that led to the first ever Business Pitch Competition in Lesotho, Boliba Pitch Competition!
As usual, NUL graduates dominated the competition, and two amongst three top ideas that won were theirs. The night of the competition, a Gala Dinner was held to award the winners.
As the master of the ceremony at the gala, Mrs Ketsi, better known as the “entrepreneurship enthusiast,” took the opportunity to commend NUL’s current efforts at fostering entrepreneurship culture.
Today NUL students are inspired, and stakeholders now consider NUL as a source of investment opportunities. NUL’s innovations dominate most local competitions and get most recognition.
Mrs Ketsi reflects on this success, “I look back to assess what we have achieved through these outreaches and our innovations and I see remarkable accomplishment. Our graduates keep making news headlines in the local business competitions...this is something to shout about!”
However, she thinks there are challenges that need serious intervention. “Most of NUL graduates do not possess a fully cultivated entrepreneurial acumen, and are faced with devastating challenges,” she says.
She said the problem with starting a business without a fully cultivated mind-set is that business muscles are not yet strong enough to embark on such a huge responsibility.
“Our graduates therefore become like newly-born babies who need to be carefully natured. But not enough business mentorship programs are present in the country for start-ups, and this leaves our aspiring young entrepreneurs vulnerable.”
“Some give up at slightest challenges like delay to get funds or profit loss. The zeal for business is short-lived.”
Therefore, occupying the Contact Office between Lesotho and the Global Entrepreneurship Network (GEN), a network of researchers, innovators, investors, capacity builders, business mentors, and policy makers from 160 countries around the world, Mrs. Ketsi motivates that it is now time to diversify the community outreach from unemployed graduates to higher primary and high school students.
She argues that the entrepreneurial mind-set has to be cultivated at earlier stages so that by the time the students reach tertiary, they are already geared towards attending classes without solely hoping to get employed when they finish school.
In her own words, “the spirit of competition however should be cultivated into our young people.”
With that spirit, they will fight to see Lesotho do well in every sector, and that in itself is a virtue!
She thinks it is essential therefore to engage primary and high school students in programs that will prepare them to be responsible citizens overcoming unemployment in future.
While Innovation skills are essential basic tools of survival, not everyone is born with the skills. Most people need training to be innovative. This is where innovation forums will be helpful, especially taking place during school vacations.
“That will not only keep our young people busy during holidays but will be a lifetime investment in the lives,” she suggested.
She further revealed that her plan is to partner in advanced outreach strategy, and form forums with competitions. Issues like career development and talent toning, will help these youth to identify challenges that their communities face, and then come up with solutions.
Leadership and business skills development will also be in the agenda, including programmes on saving and good spending habits.
“We will use everything that we see idling, and make the best of it. This will be beating two birds with one stone,” she said.
The idea is for the outreach program that keeps young people out of useless agendas, that instils ethical behaviour in pre-tertiary students, with the ultimate goal of raising innovative future leaders.
Mrs Ketsi's engagement in entrepreneurship issues was sparked by challenges they met in one nonprofit organization that she co- founded in 2009, that was aiming at biodiversity projects.
She attended capacity building workshops on several themes like adaptation strategies to global warming, turning science into business, project management, digital skills, business start- up and business competitiveness & intellectual property.
She has engaged youth in motivational sessions, specializing in 'Toning Your Talent' concept. She is also a very inspiring member of the NUL's Science, Technology and Innovation Expo Organizing Committee.
