NUL Innovation Hub — Lesotho's Royal-Chartered University-to-Factory Pipeline

The National University of Lesotho (NUL) Innovation Hub was launched on 14 November 2018 in Roma by NUL Chancellor King Letsie III, alongside NUL Vice-Chancellor Prof. Nqosa Mahao. Its first cohort of incubated businesses included a yoghurt factory (Sebabatso), a biscuit maker (Bohlale), a soap producer (Mohalalitoe), an automatic egg-incubator manufacturer (PIUS XII) and a sign-language interpreter software project — spanning food processing, light manufacturing and assistive technology. The government simultaneously committed to funding a new NUL School of Engineering to feed the pipeline. Incubated businesses can remain at the Hub for up to three years before graduating to independent operation.
In May 2025 the Hub's Venture-Bridge initiative — branded 'Tsoha, u Iketsetse' ('Wake up and do it for yourself') — used a M12 million (Lesotho Loti, roughly USD 650,000) investment from Johannesburg-based Admond Capital to open seven factories in Welkom, in South Africa's Free State province, producing Lesotho-made cosmetics, food items, herbal remedies and eco-friendly goods, and creating what local reporting described as 'dozens' of jobs for Basotho and South African workers. The Hub's stated goal is to incubate up to 500 start-ups and innovative SMEs over five years.
Public reporting to date names specific incubated businesses and the Venture-Bridge investment figure, but does not publish an audited count of total jobs created, business survival rates, or revenue generated by the Hub as a whole, so its aggregate economic impact beyond these individual examples remains unverified.

Read the full analysis: https://nul.ls/innovation-hub/