Mohloli has grown from a business network to a business chamber since its establishment four years ago. Founded by “a bunch of progressive business people” as described by Thuso Green, one of the founders, it sprung up in the wake of the Smart Partnership dialogue that Lesotho hosted in 2005.

The driving force behind Mohloli according to Green, is a paradigm shift from poverty reduction to wealth creation. “When you go to countries like Botswana you see that their focus is wealth creation. Their vision to create an environment that gives money to people who will grow it and employ others, instead of just picking up the poor is very visible.”

He says the ability of the top leader in any country to infuse his thinking is key, and it was their desire to see this happen, that led to the formation of a network that would engage government. So Mohloli was formed.

One of the crucial needs of the group from the onset was to communicate effectively and no other way would beat cyber space. However when the website had been established, tragedy struck, taking the life of the service provider who had single-handedly built the website, in a car crash. The website would never recover.

So when the network was engaged by the Private Sector Competitiveness Project to mobilize its members for awareness about opportunities of LEAP, it was Mohloli’s turn to also benefit.

“The web world, presence in cyber space is the best way to be known.” Says Thuso Green

The chamber went live on the net in early October with a state of the art website. As an association seventy five percent of the more than one hundred thousand Maloti spent on the project was refunded by LEAP.

Anyone can log on for information about Mohloli, but members will have more privileged access to among others tenders and business events, with a password.

The chamber is happy to be back online, but Green says he is skeptical about the LEAP policy that requires businesses to spend first, and be reimbursed later. “The only reason we were able to do this is because we have a bigger consortium, otherwise smaller businesses will never get meaningful support because they won’t have this kind of money to spend upfront.” Says Green.

He says he believes LEAP should re-think this model if it is to have impact.

“I think the project should explore other ways of ensuring the money goes where it should, otherwise they will never be able to support big projects.” Thuso Green