| Title | Chapter 11: Lesotho services sector and implications for international trade |
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| DOI | https://doi.org/10.4102/aosis.2025.BK536.11 |
| Landing page | https://books.aosis.co.za/index.php/ob/catalog/book/536 |
| License | https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/ |
| Copyright | Denis Nfor Yuni & Tsotang Tsietsi (eds.). Licensee: AOSIS (Pty) Ltd. The moral rights of the editors and authors have been asserted. |
| Publisher | AOSIS |
| Long abstract | This chapter provides an overview of Lesotho’s services sector, its critical contribution to the domestic economy and the underlying implications for the country’s participation in the global trade in services. Despite a downward trend in the past two decades, the sector remains the largest contributor to Lesotho’s economic activity. The specific services that have significantly contributed to Lesotho’s economic development include tourism, financial, telecommunications and information technology (IT) services. These can have spillover benefits to other sectors as well. However, sectoral growth in value addition is relatively low and on a downward trend since 2013, from 7% to 1% in 2022. This could be attributed to several factors, including an outdated regulatory and policy framework related to trade in services, limited-service export diversification, inadequate enabling infrastructure and specialised skills, stiff competition and market access, external shocks, as well as over-dependence on traditional industries such as textiles and mining. Therefore, the development of IT-enabled business services is critical for Lesotho to participate in global and regional value chains and leverage opportunities in the 21st-century services trade. However, this requires a clear focus on connectivity, language skills, customer-centric approaches, time zone considerations, and telecommunications infrastructure to enhance competitiveness and facilitate Lesotho’s economic transformation. |
| Print length | 25 pages |
| Language | English (Original) |
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Mamello Amelia Nchake is a senior lecturer in the Department of Economics at Stellenbosch University, South Africa. Nchake is also a research associate at Policy Research in International Services and Manufacturing (PRISM) at the University of Cape Town (UCT) and a research fellow at the Growth Lab for Africa at the University of Swaziland, Eswatini. Nchake holds a PhD in Economics from UCT, obtained through the Collaborative PhD Programme(CPP) funded by the AERC. Nchake is the recipient of the Carnegie Postdoctoral Fellowship awarded by Carnegie New York for the 2014/15academic year, as well as the AfDB group/AERC research fellowship awarded by AERC in 2016. As a visiting lecturer, she is affiliated with various thinktanks in Africa, including AERC and the Eastern and Southern African Management Institute (ESAMI). In 2023, she received the NUL WTO SynergyFirst Prize Research Award. Nchake’s research interests focus on international trade and economic development in Africa. Nchake has participated in several research projects as both a principal investigator and a co-investigator, including the Private Enterprise Development in Low Income Countries(PEDL) and Centre for Economic Policy Research (CEPR) joint project from 2013 to 2015; the Partnership for Economic Policy (PEP) project from 2019to 2022 and the AERC project from 2020 to 2024. Additionally, Nchake has conducted commissioned research for various government ministries and international organisations, including, the WBG, the UNDP, UNECA, the International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI), the Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) and the Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ) [German Society for International Cooperation], working in countries such as Lesotho, South Africa, Botswana, Namibia, Eswatini, Angola and Côte d’Ivoire. Nchake has published widely in regional and international peer-reviewed journals, including the International Review of Economics and Finance, the Journal of African Economies and the Agricultural Finance Review.