The African Development Bank Group (AfDB) and the Lesotho Chamber of Commerce and Industry (LCCI) signed, on 1st February 2018, a Fund for African Private Sector Assistance (FAPA) grant agreement of USD 915,000 to finance the Economic Diversification Support Technical Assistance Project (EDSTAP). The objective of the Project is to improve the institutional capacities and effectiveness of business associations in Lesotho by improving partnerships, building capacity and delivery of business development services. This project will contribute towards developing a conducive environment for private sector development by strengthening business associations and networks to meaningfully participate in national and sectoral dialogue and foster cooperation among Basotho entrepreneurs and with government.
SMME Support Network will this component. The beneficiary business associations are weak, run by volunteers, have no system for their operations and do not have a database for their memebership. The establishment of shared services will help in the goal of building an inter-dependent ecosystem of SMME Associations in Lesotho. The initial users will be the identified beneficiary agencies under this project.
This component targets all participating Association and aims at building national and sectoral dialogue framework for the business associations and strength their advocacy skills. This component will be coordinated by the Lesotho Chamber of Commerce and Industry (LCCI) in partnership with Private Sector Foundation (PSF). The project Coordinator reccruited under the project will be the key counter-part to the consulting firm to implement this component...
The consulting firm will provide and expert to assist the Association to define how they can structure their representation during the various national and sectoral dialogue, the skill-set they require and the strategies to be effective in the various dialogues.
The objective of this component is to strengthen project implementation, oordination and monitoring and evaluation capacity. Under this component, the project will finance the project related operating costs for LCCI, and co-finance the operating costs of the PMU under the World Bank Private Sector Competitiveness and Economic Diversication Project (PSCEDP) and Economic Diversification Support Project (ESDP) based in the Ministry of Trade and Industry.
The chamber lends a helping hand in resuscitating businesses at the verge of windingup, downsizing, and more...