THE One-stop Business Facilitation Centre (OBFC) will soon have an array of new features that will make it a complete one-stop shop for business registration, licensing as well as business information.
The revamped system will make it easier to register businesses, get licenses and apply for permits.
The idea, which is the main goal of the second phase of the Private Sector Competitiveness and Economic Diversification Project (PSCEDP), is to streamline and simplify the business registration and licensing processes.
The objective is to cut bureaucracy, rationalise the processes and reduce the time it takes from registering to operating a business. Existing and potential investors can also get licences and permits under the same roof.
The new portal will also provide concise information on the business processes like how to register, where to get licences and permits and what steps to follow when starting a business in Lesotho.
Started in 2007, the PSCEDP is implementing reforms to make it easier to do business in Lesotho to unlock economic value.
Although the economy has grown steadily over the years it remains far from reaching its full potential because of cumbersome regulations and processes that put off investors. PSCEDP is working to change that.
Since inception the project has transformed the way people register businesses, by automating the systems and putting the processes under one roof. No longer do people need lawyers' services to register companies.
A process that used take months can now be done within a few days.
What required visits to several offices is now being handled by officers under one roof, creating a seamless registration process that saves both time and costs. Documents like certificates of incorporation, articles of association and shareholders' details are readily available on the portal.
PSCEDP Manager, Chaba Mokuku, says the new features to the portal "revolutionarises the way people register businesses and bring them to operation".
"The drive is to make Lesotho competitive as an investment destination by making business registration and licensing simple and efficient," Mokuku says.
"If we want to attract investment, both foreign and local, we have to make it easier for them to start businesses. They have to know that they can do all the processes and get all the relevant information under one roof."
He says that the current efforts are building on the strong foundation set by the first phase of the project that created the OBFC.
"Now we are changing OBFC from just a business registration portal to a complete electronic system that allows businesses to get licences, initial tax clearance, permits and the relevant information in one place."
"The ultimate objective is to remove the hurdles that hobble businesses in Lesotho by streamlining procedures and simplifying the rules, policies and regulations."
But Mokuku says the new system will achieve much more than that because it will completely change the way Basotho do business. The new portal will allow for the registration of sole traders and other informal businesses that have remained marginalised despite their significance to the national economy.
By some estimates, there are more than tens of thousands of unregistered businesses in Lesotho. They range from women selling vegetables at stalls to men repairing cars in their backyard.
Unregistered, these businesses are unable to break into the formal sector where there are opportunities for growth. They have no access to credit and lucrative contracts to help them grow.
Formal businesses shun them because they don't see them as companies in the true sense of the definition yet in most cases the only difference is that they are not registered. The result is that they remain stifled and unable to reach their full potential to contribute to economic growth and create employment.
"If these businesses are registered it means you can account for them and make the necessary policy changes to help them grow. You cannot have the right interventions if you don't know who and how many companies need help. They will have access to credit and other opportunities," Mokuku says.
Monaheng Monaheng, Director of the OBFC, says the project will "further reduce the turnaround time and associated costs of starting a business, whilst simultaneously improving the country's ranking as in investment destination.
"The electronic licensing platform is aimed at facilitating faster issuance of a traders' licence through an electronic application platform that can be accessed at all times from anywhere," Monaheng says.
"This is going to further reduce the turnaround time for an entrepreneur to start a business since the queries that may arise will be addressed instantly to allow for faster processing of the licence application."
Monaheng says the electronic system will be particularly crucial to foreign investors who would have otherwise had to incur travel costs to travel to Lesotho just to apply for a trader's licence.
"The portal will further reduce the number of walk-ins and current queues of clients who wait to apply for licences at the OBFC offices on a daily basis."
The positive changes to the OBFC will be complemented by the Lesotho e-regulations portal, a platform that will guide investors on the specific regulations and laws relating to business in Lesotho.
The idea here is to improve transparency so that an investor has a clear picture of what is needed to start a business, Monaheng says.
The portal tells you all there is to know about business regulations, laws and policies.
In addition, it provides pictorial evidence of the forms, permits and licences businesses require. The portal is a complete guide to the laws that govern businesses in Lesotho.
Coordinated by the PSCEDP, both the e-licensing and e-regulation platforms are being developed with the technical assistance of the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD) and financial support from the World Bank group.
The PSCEDP is a project of the Lesotho government under the Ministry of Trade and Industry, Cooperatives and Marketing. Its key mandate is to facilitate private sector investment in Lesotho by improving the business environment and by diversifying sources of growth for Lesotho's economy.