Sebabatso AI Skills Programme — Lesotho Trains Its First Cohort of Youth Entrepreneurs in AI-Powered Marketing

Sebabatso ("to nurture", in Sesotho) is Lesotho Prime Minister Sam Matekane's flagship youth-empowerment initiative, launched in October 2023 with UNDP Lesotho and the Ministry of Gender, Youth and Social Development to tackle youth unemployment through entrepreneurship training, mentorship and access to finance.

In 2025 the Ministry, the U.S. Embassy in Lesotho and American Corner Maseru launched a dedicated Artificial Intelligence Skills Development Programme under Sebabatso. Officials Pitso Lesaoana (Minister of Gender, Youth and Social Development) and Thomas Hines (U.S. Chargé d'Affaires) opened the programme, which equips past Sebabatso beneficiaries with practical AI skills — including AI-assisted marketing, content creation and access to international digital markets.

The first cohort comprises 60 Sebabatso alumni already running businesses, undergoing a structured six-month training cycle that opened with a three-day e-commerce and AI-powered marketing workshop at American Corner Maseru, covering AI tools for digital storefronts, targeted advertising and customer analytics.

Public reporting to date covers training design, partners and cohort size rather than AI-specific business outcomes. The wider Sebabatso initiative (of which this is one strand) reports that its supported companies have collectively generated 383 jobs, but that figure spans all Sebabatso tracks, not the AI-skills cohort specifically, so it is cited here as context rather than as a measured AI-impact result.

Read the full analysis: https://www.gov.ls/youth/artificial-intelligence-skills-development-program-launched-under-sebabatso-initiative/