By ‘Mamohaila Rampo
MASERU
In a bid to strengthen Lesotho’s private sector readiness to provide commercially viable solutions for climate action and clean energy transition in Lesotho, the Minister of Natural Resource Hon Mohlomi Moleko officially launched a project named Enhancing Lesotho’s Private Sector Readiness for a Clean Energy Transition.
The primary aim of this project is to capacitate Lesotho’s private sector to develop, commercialize, and invest in cleantech solutions, as well as to maximize the economic growth opportunities embedded therein, while supporting Lesotho in reaching its nationally determined targets.
Moleko said the mandate of his Ministry is to ensure increased access to reliable and affordable energy to all sectors of the economy aimed at improving the livelihoods of Basotho. He mentioned that the Government further acknowledges that it cannot alone satisfy this key responsibility without the active participation of other stakeholders, including the private sector, the civil society and development partners.
The implementing entity for the project is UNIDO while the project will be financed by the Green Climate Fund (GCF) with an overall project cost of USD700, 000.
“We believe that the private sector’s capacity to provide and invest in technology solutions on a commercial basis will be a catalytic factor in achieving Lesotho’s climate and clean energy goals. Therefore, under this Project, we will work directly with Lesotho’s private sector and strengthen their capacity to innovate, develop and deploy home-grown technologies,” said the United Nations Industrial Development Organization UNIDO Regional Officer Nokwazi Moyo.
UNIDO Sustainable Energy Expect Sunyoung Suh said Lesotho’s private sector competitiveness to provide and invest intechnology solutions on a commercial basis will be key to achieving sustainable economic growth, simultaneously with its climate and clean energy goals.
Suh said the project will benefit from UNIDO’s extensive experience in working with the private sector to enhance their competitiveness to respond to and participate in climate action and energy transition, through new and improved business models.
Among its records, UNIDO’s Global Cleantech Innovation Programme (GCIP) has supported over 1000 early-stage enterprises and small businesses in the cleantech sector through business acceleration and investment facilitation services in 9 developing countries between 2013 and 2019.
Suh stated that the knowledge and resources accumulated through the implementation of GCIP will be leveraged to support Lesotho through this Project. She further explained that the GCIP has launched in 15 countries.
“We consider this readiness support as part of the wider GCIP network, and this project will benefit from synergies with other GCIP partner countries in the region, especially South Africa, Morocco, Nigeria, and Senegal,” said Suh.