Lijeng Ranooe
LETLOTLO La Basotho Industrial Co-operative Society (LBICS) has set its sights on creating sustainable wealth and jobs for Basotho through the development of a vibrant local industry.
This was said by LBICS Public Relations Officer (PRO), Lucky Khanyapa, in a recent interview with the Business Journal.
Mr Khanyapa said the cooperative society which was founded last August aimed to create wealth through industrial production of at least 20 products to be sold in retail outlets as well as the provision of services in tourism, property rentals and transport.
“Letlotlo la Basotho industrial co-operative society began in August 2017 as an idea,” Mr Khanyapa said.
“The public was invited to register their names by paying M50 instalments to make a total of contribution of M1000 each. The aim was to ultimately raise M1 000 000.”
He further explained that the goal was to have Basotho buy locally made goods and manufacture as many products as possible starting with cleaning detergents and cosmetics.
“In short, we intend to manufacture every product that you buy in a local supermarkets, hardware centres.
“We therefore intend to make every Mosotho a member of LBICS and have a customer in each member and their relatives. The products will be sold directly to end users through direct marketing and through usual distribution channels of wholesalers down to retailers.”
He also said that the biggest challenge they faced was the lengthy process of acquiring legal documents required to start operations.
“In business time is money and any delay in doing business is a loss of an opportunity to make profits. Another challenge is getting factory shells as government has policy bottlenecks that make it difficult for local start-ups to acquire factory shells. Hopefully before the end of February 2018 we will have obtained all the necessary licences to be fully operational.”
“There are mainly three ways in which members will financially benefit. Some will be employed by our many business units and members will also get dividends. Members will also have an opportunity to buy products at discounted rates,” Mr Khanyapa said.
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