Lesotho Entrepreneurship Hub & Seed Financing Facility (LEHSFF)

Lesotho's Ministry of Trade, Industry, Business Development and Tourism launched the Lesotho Entrepreneurship Hub and Seed Financing Facility (LEHSFF) in June 2023 under the World Bank-supported Competitiveness and Financial Inclusion (CAFI) Project, aiming to make early-stage enterprises — particularly those led by women and youth — bankable and investor-ready.
The facility works through two linked mechanisms: it trains and capacitates local Entrepreneurship Support Organisations (ESOs) to run incubation cycles, and it operates a matching-grant and seed-capital fund for enterprises that graduate from incubation. By October 2025, LEHSFF had capacitated 27 ESOs and incubated 150 enterprises (92 women-led, 111 youth-led), which together reported creating over 1,200 jobs; separately, 138 enterprises received matching grants for equipment and working capital, reporting a combined 2,417 jobs created.
A fifth incubation cycle opened for applications in February 2026, running through August 2026, indicating the facility has sustained multiple cycles since launch rather than a single pilot round.
Job and enterprise counts are self-reported by the CAFI project and its ESO network, as republished by independent Lesotho outlets (Lesotho Times, The Reporter Lesotho) and the Government of Lesotho; no independent audit of the job or survival figures was located.

Read the full analysis: https://www.gov.ls/development/trade-launches-lesotho-entrepreneurship-hub-and-seed-financing-facility/