This past week, The Hookup Dinner 2020 edition kicked off in Happy Villa, Maseru. Building and developing the business ecosystem will for sure enhance the quality of life of individuals and families.
The agenda of The Hookup Dinner was to shed a light on the most important topics to be discussed throughout the year, the budget speech review, and the launch of the 100k Challange 2020.
Improving the business landscape is slow work, and flare-ups of violence as seen from other business sectors can slow down growth. Still, The Hookup Dinner wants to bring the business community to discuss fairly on wool and mohair wool issues.
Wool and mohair form the bedrock of Lesotho’s rural economy. Producers range from smallholder farmers with small flocks, to breeders of large flocks of superior gene-quality animals. With over 1.2 million sheep and 845,000 goats there is a lot of potential to develop the industry. Wool is the leading commodity exported by Lesotho and mohair is the fifth largest.
The second issue to tackle is on how the cannabis industry in Lesotho can lead to wealth creation. In 2017, Lesotho became the first nation in Africa to issue licenses for the production of medicinal cannabis. International investment quickly followed in 2018. What is produced will be for export to companies around the world, where it will be processed into cannabis products. How can Basotho tap into this market?
The third discussion will see Lesotho focusing on horticulture products, including vegetables and fruits among several others. How do we bring farms into homes? How do we take lead in the production of fresh produce?
Among other things that The Entrepreneurship Network has lined-up for 2020 is an investment forum. This will be targeting viable business ideas ready to hit the market. The idea is to also bring investors from the diaspora to invest in Lesotho.
As the night went, The Entrepreneurship Network was handed a M160,000 cheque from Standard Lesotho Bank to support their programming.
One of the key takeaways was a challenge for everyone of us to invest in our own country and build our economy.