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Nepal’s people, who require equitable access to economic opportunity in order so that economic growth at the individual, family and national level become attainable, viable and sustainable.

WLC grew strongly over the last two years maintaining its belief that Private Sector Development is the foremost priority for Nepal’s people, who require equitable access to economic opportunity in order so that economic growth at the individual, family and national level become attainable, viable and sustainable.

We are supporting national efforts to accelerate inclusive economic development of Nepal by creating SMEs, transferring knowledge & skills in business literacy & management through practical trainings, enhancing entrepreneurship through social marketing, developing markets by creating networks and linkages, improving business performance through on-going monitoring, facilitating investments through market studies and developing strategies, identifying practical solutions to trade barriers through assessments,
generating policy debates by bringing stakeholders together, and developing mechanisms for better access to finance through impact funds.

Our Projects:

Business Oxygen (BO2):

  • BO2 is the Nepal’s first international private equity fund for SMEs with a climate focus.
  • Provides risk capital along with advisory services for scaling up companies.
  • Made investments in 16 SMEs with average ticket size of USD 500,000
  • Investments from IFC (World bank group), FCDO, Climate Investment Funds (CIF) and WLC Ventures.

Business Support Service:

Management of technical assistance and advisory services to SMEs.

  • Structuring Technical Assistance Fund for the portfolio of BO2.

  • Implementation of the TA fund for the benefit of the portfolio companies.

  • Help SMEs identify gap and connect to the specialist.

  • TA reporting.

Value Chain development of commodities in agriculture and livestock:

  • Carried out in-depth assessment of two selected value chains (Chiretta and pig farming for processed foods) looking into the production systems, value chains, and marketing outlets
  • Developed a model of each value chain activity and process, promoting processing within Nepal, bringing processing activities closer to rural sources of produce, linking with other priority value chains.

Youth access to finance:

  • Designing and implementing a knowledge building strategy targeted at raising the visibility of youth savings as an issue among key stakeholder groups.

Sakchyam Challenge Fund, as part of DFID’s Access to Finance programme with Mahila Sahayatra:

  • Design and Implementation of the project, specially designed Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises (MSMEs) loan products.

Scaling up Investments in Agriculture in Nepal for Asian Development Bank (ADB):

  • Assessed the opportunities for improving investments in agribusiness in Nepal by looking at the eight agriculture sub-sectors, as classified by the Central Bank;
  • Assessed the key constraints that impede the improvement of the overall investment climate in Nepal in the agriculture sector;
  • Recommended emerging innovative agribusiness financing models in Nepal and compared them to the best practices around the world, and identified the missing links to enhance investments in Nepal;
  • Recommended policy-level interventions on the viable financial models for Nepal
    • Identified specific and targeted interventions to be supported through technical assistance.

Cold Storage Warehouse Facility in Nepal for Steadfast:

Scope of work:

  • The number of cold storage facilities in Nepal, including general locations, capacity and sector-wise customer base, estimated investment in the facilities

  • Major commodities using the existing cold storage facilities

  • Pricing structure of the existing facilities

  • Occupancy rate of the existing facilities

  • The potential market for new cold storage facilities

  • The factors to be considered in the facility design

  • The strengths and weaknesses of existing cold storage facilities as well as opportunities and threats for the new entrants (through SWOT analysis)

  • The existing mechanism i.e., factors which worked and which did not work, including barriers to entry/market

Advisory service to Standard Chartered Bank (Nepal):

  • Consultation on marketing retail banking for Standard Chartered Bank

Sankat Mochan operation of Nepal Army after earthquake:

  • Providing communications expertise  to the Army in managing events for national and international media after Nepal earthquake for search, rescue, relief and efforts.

Creating platform for the promotion of Solar PV for urban and industrial usage:

  • commissioned to carry out a policy study by Ministry of Science, Technology and Environment, GoN and recommended the usage of Solar PV as an off-grid solution to commercial usage. WLC carried out interactive sessions between manufactures of solar PV and big corporate houses such as hospitals, banks, 5-star hotels, etc. This study led to the formation of net metering system in Nepal.

AEPC communications strategy:

  • designed a strategic communications strategy for government’s Alternative Energy Promotion Center (AEPC). One of the key objectives of the strategy is to bring the private sector on board to work together with AEPC in putting in place income generating activities for people living in rural areas through promotion of alternative and rural energy technologies.

Creating sustainable economic opportunities in rural Nepal:

  • in partnership with Winrock International, worked on an implementable strategy to create economic opportunities that are sustainable through renewable energy technology for AEPC. The main target group for this initiative were poor and excluded Nepalis living in the rural areas.

Strategy for Danida Business Partnership:

  • developed a strategy for the implementation of Danida’s private sector project, the Danida Business Partnership Programme (DBP). DBP provides financial support for the preparation and implementation of long-term and committed business partnerships between Danish companies and Nepali partners with focus on transfer of knowhow and technology to the latter.

Generating Awareness and Creating Links with the Private Sector on Disaster Risk Reduction:

  • in partnership with Burn Violence Survivors-Nepal (BVS), provided support to Tackling Acid and Burns violence: ASTI Asia Regional Programme, a DFID-funded project, in improving prevention through awareness generating activities and in involving the private sector in preventive measures against accidents.

Various Policy advocacy works:

  • Provided expertise to Securities Exchange Board of Nepal on creation of the specialised investment fund regulation.
  • Lobbied the regulators to allow the formation of investment companies for foreign direct investments.
  • Succeeded to get a waiver on the black listing clause for investments with FDI majority holding.
  • Succeeded to lower the tax rate for exports of green pellets.