Lesotho:Mampeoane Mokete

Mampeoane Mokete is an entrepreneur who started a business after being disappointed by not being able to go to university. She was too much dependent to her husband as he was the only one working therefore he was a breadwinner. Mokete started to ask a capital from her husband and fortunately he agreed and gave her. She then bought meat-breed chicks, grow them and sell them after six weeks. She explained that by having a business it was just something that she thought will keep her busy, she did not have a passion for it. She developed an interest after she attended gender links trainings that gave her energy and the spirit of business.

Mokete indicated that her business would not be where it is if not of Gender Links. As it started as a small business, it could not grow any further, but rather, she would boost it from time to time. She managed to have a registered company and opened a business account. She indicated that she began to expand her business after she gained the knowledge in entrepreneurship. She extended the land for farming, where she increased the number of broiler chickens and added by raising layer chickens for egg production. Her farm is able to supply Chinese shops, local shops and also the individuals are allowed to buy. Furthermore, she is producing vegetables like cabbage, mushrooms, onions and garlic as well as planting fruit trees for sale. She stated that she keeps on expanding the size of the space as a result of the project, she was also fortunate to be funded by Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) where they built a greenhouse for her and provided surface irrigation system.

Mokete is one of the women who have created employment to 3 full-time employees and few temporary employees in her community and this was possible through the skills she acquired at the workshops. Now that the business is doing very well and she can support the family, her opinions taken into consideration and her husband is no longer grumbling.

In terms of challenges, she had one on finances especially during lockdown, people were not able to buy her products and she was losing because most of the products were perishable. She did not reach some of her business goals during the pandemic. Mokete is also having a Facebook page where she markets the products.