Are We Doing Enough To Grow?

LOCAL Authorities (LAs) could play a significant role in local economic acceleration and eventually economic growth.

Even though Namibia is the only country in Africa upholding Vision 2030, macroeconomic fundamentals are in worrisome state of affairs and the current economy’s pillars are not sustainable. Unemployment is ever-increasing and economy is rather stagnant while strategic efforts for revitalisation remain dim.The question is; are we doing enough? Namibia should not wait for miracles from somewhere else.To date, more emphasis is on attracting foreign investors but less has been comprehensively exercised to rejuvenate domestic investment particularly the invigoration of emerging entrepreneurship.LAs, especially in high economic potential districts such as Windhoek, Oshakati, Oshikango, Ongwediva, Katima Mulilo, Swakopmund and Walvis Bay, are to blame for their inability to service and avail land for commercial development at affordable prices.As a result, rental of commercial premises in these towns remains unaffordable to the emerging domestic and even foreign businesses.This locks efforts at job creation and thus carries a long-term economic cost to the state in many different ways.SME parks or incubators built by the Ministry of Trade and Industry (MTI) or those built by few LAs are far less sufficient and efforts for expansion are not gaining momentum.In reshaping our economic landscape, Namibia must be a learning country to fast-track its economic development.Experience from emerging fast-growing developing economies indicates that SME incubators provided fertile grounds for emerging entrepreneurs, innovation, SME-strategic alliances to capture the markets over bigger companies, and thus competitive economies, as well as being big engines for employment creation.Also revenues from comprehensive broad-based SMEs have increased domestic consumption, savings, exports and government tax revenues which have subsequently grown the economies and stabilised macroeconomic fundamentals which in turn encouraged the inflow of foreign investors.Thus a broad-based SME development at local level could be a panacea for economic departure.No country in this world has developed without being pillared by the SMEs that degenerated into big international business empires.Therefore, LAs, MTI, National Youth Council (NYC), Namibia Chamber of Commerce and Industry (NCCI), and others must work together to create more SME incubators accompanied by other forms of assistances required for the survival of emerging businesses.This information is well known to all of us but one wonders why Namibians, including political leaders who have the capacity to change things, keep on talking about the same story without taking concrete, systematic and comprehensive actions to address the situations.Namibia is beautiful, with high economic potential but the country has lots of zero-people who are lackadaisical, talkative, selfish, self-praising, jealous, corrupt, or money and power lovers.I concur with the Founding President’s remarks some time ago that Namibians need to be whipped, and I reckon that this must be a top-down whipping and should have started earlier than now.I believe that Vision 2030’s achievability requires a fundamental mind shift for us to look at and do things in a focused, comprehensive, systematic, non-partial, and sustainable manner, otherwise we are fighting for a lost vision and the nation is about to perish.P Muteyauli Via e-mailUnemployment is ever-increasing and economy is rather stagnant while strategic efforts for revitalisation remain dim.The question is; are we doing enough? Namibia should not wait for miracles from somewhere else.To date, more emphasis is on attracting foreign investors but less has been comprehensively exercised to rejuvenate domestic investment particularly the invigoration of emerging entrepreneurship.LAs, especially in high economic potential districts such as Windhoek, Oshakati, Oshikango, Ongwediva, Katima Mulilo, Swakopmund and Walvis Bay, are to blame for their inability to service and avail land for commercial development at affordable prices.As a result, rental of commercial premises in these towns remains unaffordable to the emerging domestic and even foreign businesses.This locks efforts at job creation and thus carries a long-term economic cost to the state in many different ways.SME parks or incubators built by the Ministry of Trade and Industry (MTI) or those built by few LAs are far less sufficient and efforts for expansion are not gaining momentum.In reshaping our economic landscape, Namibia must be a learning country to fast-track its economic development.Experience from emerging fast-growing developing economies indicates that SME incubators provided fertile grounds for emerging entrepreneurs, innovation, SME-strategic alliances to capture the markets over bigger companies, and thus competitive economies, as well as being big engines for employment creation.Also revenues from comprehensive broad-based SMEs have increased domestic consumption, savings, exports and government tax revenues which have subsequently grown the economies and stabilised macroeconomic fundamentals which in turn encouraged the inflow of foreign investors.Thus a broad-based SME development at local level could be a panacea for economic departure.No country in this world has developed without being pillared by the SMEs that degenerated into big international business empires.Therefore, LAs, MTI, National Youth Council (NYC), Namibia Chamber of Commerce and Industry (NCCI), and others must work together to create more SME incubators accompanied by other forms of assistances required for the survival of emerging businesses.This information is well known to all of us but one wonders why Namibians, including political leaders who have the capacity to change things, keep on talking about the same story without taking concrete, systematic and comprehensive actions to address the situations.Namibia is beautiful, with high economic potential but the country has lots of zero-people who are lackadaisical, talkative, selfish, self-praising, jealous, corrupt, or money and power lovers.I concur with the Founding President’s remarks some time ago that Namibians need to be whipped, and I reckon that this must be a top-down whipping and should have started earlier than now.I believe that Vision 2030’s achievability requires a fundamental mind shift for us to look at and do things in a focused, comprehensive, systematic, non-partial, and sustainable manner, otherwise we are fighting for a lost vision and the nation is about to perish.P Muteyauli Via e-mail