Namibia ready for more local growth
Namibia ready for more local growth

Namibia ready for more local growth

Small business development, informal sector inclusion, inclusion and untapped creativity targetted
Dani Booysen
Augetto Graig





The national campaign to buy local and grow the Namibian economy has entered its second phase and according to the minister of industrialisation and trade, Lucia Iipumbu, will build on the success of the first phase launched last year.

“This campaign is crucial in ensuring that our local businesses are part and parcel of our nation’s economic recovery plan from the COVID-19 pandemic,” she told partners and invited guests at the UN House headquarters of the United Nations in Namibia yesterday.

“The reality on the ground is that our local market is dominated by foreign imports and that the local producers, manufacturers and entrepreneurs find it difficult to access retail shelf space for a variety of reasons,” she elaborated. “Some of the challenges relate to quality standards, access to finance and distributions channels to name a few,” she added.

When asked later minister Iipumbu insisted that “local products are affordable. It is just a myth that they are not affordable. This whole process is meant to simplify the costs which were often pushed up by middlemen. Now we use our own NSI (Namibia Standards Institute) to certify quality and we have our own bar-codes, but honestly speaking Namibian products are affordable,” she said.

In her speech the minister made specific mention of the recently launched Namibian barcode, “which is expected to ease the access of local products in the local and global marketplace. The unique Namibian barcode was given final approval in May 2021 by the Global GS1 Office General Assembly in Geneva, and was officially launched last week.”

Namibia’s unique barcode number is 631. “The code of up to 13 numbers also identifies the manufacturer, the product and the production batch. This was one of the factors that was found to significantly impact access to local markets,” Iipumbu said.

She thanked campaign partners such as the United Nations Namibia, The Namibia Trade Forum, Team Namibia, The Namibian Newspaper as the official media partner, Weathermen, NIPDB and participating retailers.

DISTRIBUTION IS EXPENSIVE

Namibia Trade Forum marketing and communications manager Nankelo Amupadhi said the success of phase 1 was shown by positive response from businesses and an increase of 40% in the number of local products sold by retailers.

One example is Food Lovers Market which sells 90% local produce sourced from 160 Namibian farmers. According to general manager Marius Brundyn distribution is still expensive in Namibia: “How to we work together to make it work?” he asked and added that there is a need to educate customers about Namibian produce.

The UNDP resident representative Alka Bhatia say more local farm products are showcased in local markets thanks to the campaign. A recent UN diagnostic shows that the informal sector employs 52% of working Namibians and of 34 000 small and medium enterprises, less than half are registered. She stressed the need for inclusion and noted the impact facility for financial support for proposals begin run by the Environmental Investment Fund (EIF) and the trade ministery.

At the same event Sen Pang, the UN Namibia Resident Coordinator said that it warms his heart “to hear testimonies of how phase 1 of this campaign helped increase sales for several female owned businesses, small businesses and traders in the informal sector. This shows real impact on the ground,” he said.

UNTAPPED SOURCES

Other areas that the second phase of the campaign will focus on include capacity building for small businesses, the Tambula e-commerce platform, and funding for which the Namibia University of Science and Technology (NUST) has helped develop NamStarter to enable crowd funding.

Promoting local tourism with the Namibia Tourism Board and also the creative industries will now receive attention. Deputy director of arts M'kariko Amagulu described the creative industry as an untapped sector of the economy, and called for a trade policy change to get local music into retailers like Musica, while her ministry reforms the country’s copyright law. “Heritage is also a product, but dependent of skills rather than raw materials,” she added.

A retail week will soon see stores highlighting Namibian products while the Namibian plans a special publication for local products with reduced advertising rates according to the Namibian’s head of marketing and sales.

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Allgemeine Zeitung 2024-03-28

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Katima Mulilo: 19° | 37° Rundu: 17° | 33° Eenhana: 18° | 33° Oshakati: 20° | 31° Ruacana: 19° | 33° Tsumeb: 17° | 29° Otjiwarongo: 16° | 28° Omaruru: 18° | 31° Windhoek: 17° | 28° Gobabis: 17° | 28° Henties Bay: 16° | 19° Wind speed: 24km/h, Wind direction: S, Low tide: 10:54, High tide: 04:57, Low Tide: 22:58, High tide: 17:16 Swakopmund: 15° | 17° Wind speed: 29km/h, Wind direction: SW, Low tide: 10:52, High tide: 04:55, Low Tide: 22:56, High tide: 17:14 Walvis Bay: 16° | 22° Wind speed: 33km/h, Wind direction: SW, Low tide: 10:52, High tide: 04:54, Low Tide: 22:56, High tide: 17:13 Rehoboth: 18° | 29° Mariental: 22° | 32° Keetmanshoop: 21° | 34° Aranos: 21° | 31° Lüderitz: 15° | 29° Ariamsvlei: 23° | 34° Oranjemund: 15° | 21° Luanda: 27° | 30° Gaborone: 20° | 32° Lubumbashi: 17° | 24° Mbabane: 15° | 23° Maseru: 12° | 28° Antananarivo: 16° | 27° Lilongwe: 17° | 29° Maputo: 20° | 28° Windhoek: 17° | 28° Cape Town: 17° | 23° Durban: 21° | 25° Johannesburg: 18° | 28° Dar es Salaam: 26° | 32° Lusaka: 18° | 30° Harare: 15° | 31° Currency: GBP to NAD 23.87 | EUR to NAD 20.44 | CNY to NAD 2.62 | USD to NAD 18.92 | DZD to NAD 0.14 | AOA to NAD 0.02 | BWP to NAD 1.33 | EGP to NAD 0.39 | KES to NAD 0.14 | NGN to NAD 0.01 | ZMW to NAD 0.74 | ZWL to NAD 0.04 | BRL to NAD 3.8 | RUB to NAD 0.2 | INR to NAD 0.23 | USD to DZD 134.27 | USD to AOA 832.63 | USD to BWP 13.71 | USD to EGP 47.35 | USD to KES 130.98 | USD to NGN 1415.13 | USD to ZAR 18.93 | USD to ZMW 25.01 | USD to ZWL 321 | Stock Exchange: JSE All Share Index 73909.5 Up +0.41% | Namibian Stock Exchange (NSX) Overall Index 1516.02 Down -0.13% | Casablanca Stock Exchange (CSE) MASI 12981.98 Up +0.34% | Egyptian Exchange (EGX) 30 Index 28224.37 Down -2.87% | Botswana Stock Exchange (BSE) DCI Same 0 | NSX: MTC 7.75 SAME | Anirep 8.99 SAME | Capricorn Investment group 17.34 SAME | FirstRand Namibia Ltd 49 DOWN 0.50% | Letshego Holdings (Namibia) Ltd 4.1 UP 2.50% | Namibia Asset Management Ltd 0.7 SAME | Namibia Breweries Ltd 31.49 UP 0.03% | Nictus Holdings - Nam 2.22 SAME | Oryx Properties Ltd 12.1 UP 1.70% | Paratus Namibia Holdings 11.99 SAME | SBN Holdings 8.45 SAME | Trustco Group Holdings Ltd 0.48 SAME | B2Gold Corporation 47.34 DOWN 1.50% | Local Index closed 677.62 UP 0.12% | Overall Index closed 1534.6 DOWN 0.05% | Osino Resources Corp 19.47 DOWN 2.41% | Commodities: Gold US$ 2 219.48/OZ UP +1.31% | Copper US$ 3.98/lb UP +0.01% | Zinc US$ 2 453.40/T DOWN -0.13% | Brent Crude Oil US$ 87.37/BBP UP +1.14% | Platinum US$ 906.04/OZ UP +1.25% Sport results: Weather: Katima Mulilo: 19° | 37° Rundu: 17° | 33° Eenhana: 18° | 33° Oshakati: 20° | 31° Ruacana: 19° | 33° Tsumeb: 17° | 29° Otjiwarongo: 16° | 28° Omaruru: 18° | 31° Windhoek: 17° | 28° Gobabis: 17° | 28° Henties Bay: 16° | 19° Wind speed: 24km/h, Wind direction: S, Low tide: 10:54, High tide: 04:57, Low Tide: 22:58, High tide: 17:16 Swakopmund: 15° | 17° Wind speed: 29km/h, Wind direction: SW, Low tide: 10:52, High tide: 04:55, Low Tide: 22:56, High tide: 17:14 Walvis Bay: 16° | 22° Wind speed: 33km/h, Wind direction: SW, Low tide: 10:52, High tide: 04:54, Low Tide: 22:56, High tide: 17:13 Rehoboth: 18° | 29° Mariental: 22° | 32° Keetmanshoop: 21° | 34° Aranos: 21° | 31° Lüderitz: 15° | 29° Ariamsvlei: 23° | 34° Oranjemund: 15° | 21° Luanda: 27° | 30° Gaborone: 20° | 32° Lubumbashi: 17° | 24° Mbabane: 15° | 23° Maseru: 12° | 28° Antananarivo: 16° | 27° Lilongwe: 17° | 29° Maputo: 20° | 28° Windhoek: 17° | 28° Cape Town: 17° | 23° Durban: 21° | 25° Johannesburg: 18° | 28° Dar es Salaam: 26° | 32° Lusaka: 18° | 30° Harare: 15° | 31° Economic Indicators: Currency: GBP to NAD 23.87 | EUR to NAD 20.44 | CNY to NAD 2.62 | USD to NAD 18.92 | DZD to NAD 0.14 | AOA to NAD 0.02 | BWP to NAD 1.33 | EGP to NAD 0.39 | KES to NAD 0.14 | NGN to NAD 0.01 | ZMW to NAD 0.74 | ZWL to NAD 0.04 | BRL to NAD 3.8 | RUB to NAD 0.2 | INR to NAD 0.23 | USD to DZD 134.27 | USD to AOA 832.63 | USD to BWP 13.71 | USD to EGP 47.35 | USD to KES 130.98 | USD to NGN 1415.13 | USD to ZAR 18.93 | USD to ZMW 25.01 | USD to ZWL 321 | Stock Exchange: JSE All Share Index 73909.5 Up +0.41% | Namibian Stock Exchange (NSX) Overall Index 1516.02 Down -0.13% | Casablanca Stock Exchange (CSE) MASI 12981.98 Up +0.34% | Egyptian Exchange (EGX) 30 Index 28224.37 Down -2.87% | Botswana Stock Exchange (BSE) DCI Same 0 | NSX: MTC 7.75 SAME | Anirep 8.99 SAME | Capricorn Investment group 17.34 SAME | FirstRand Namibia Ltd 49 DOWN 0.50% | Letshego Holdings (Namibia) Ltd 4.1 UP 2.50% | Namibia Asset Management Ltd 0.7 SAME | Namibia Breweries Ltd 31.49 UP 0.03% | Nictus Holdings - Nam 2.22 SAME | Oryx Properties Ltd 12.1 UP 1.70% | Paratus Namibia Holdings 11.99 SAME | SBN Holdings 8.45 SAME | Trustco Group Holdings Ltd 0.48 SAME | B2Gold Corporation 47.34 DOWN 1.50% | Local Index closed 677.62 UP 0.12% | Overall Index closed 1534.6 DOWN 0.05% | Osino Resources Corp 19.47 DOWN 2.41% | Commodities: Gold US$ 2 219.48/OZ UP +1.31% | Copper US$ 3.98/lb UP +0.01% | Zinc US$ 2 453.40/T DOWN -0.13% | Brent Crude Oil US$ 87.37/BBP UP +1.14% | Platinum US$ 906.04/OZ UP +1.25%