NAMIBIAN ENTREPRENEURS FACE significant challenges that demand resilience and strategic planning. These include complex regulatory and compliance requirements, limited access to finance in a collateral-driven lending environment, skills shortages, a small domestic market and high operating costs. The regulatory landscape…

Although Namibia’s public sector plays an important role in addressing unmet societal needs, performance often falls short in terms of impact, cost efficiency, and long-term sustainability. The public and private sectors serve distinct but interconnected functions. The public sector, comprising…

ACCORDING TO A baseline study on informal settlements conducted by the Namibia Statistics Agency, chief executive Alex Shimuafeni reports that more than 200 000 Namibians currently reside in the country’s 419 informal settlements. In addition to this urban residential informality,…

Supporting entrepreneurs and fostering an enterprise culture across Namibia’s 14 administrative regions motivated the founding of SMEs Compete. This has always been, and continues to be, the core purpose of our social entrepreneurship organisation. Midway through the implementation of a…

Entrepreneurship is a long-term journey. Many entrepreneurs start as home-based informal ventures before transitioning to the formal sector and growing into small, medium, or even large enterprises. Despite often being overlooked, the micro, small and medium enterprise (MSME) sector remains…

In 2017, THE United Nations General Assembly designated 27 June as an annual observance recognising the crucial economic role of micro, small and medium enterprises (MSMEs). This raises an important question: does the MSME sector receive sufficient recognition in Namibia,…

State-owned enterprises (SOEs) are established to drive economic development, deliver essential services and stimulate growth. Yet across many African countries they have instead become synonymous with inefficiency, taxpayers-funded bailouts and persistent scandals. While political interference, unclear lines of authority structures…

The Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists has set the Doomsday Clock to 85 seconds before midnight, its closest point since its debut 80 years ago, to a theoretical annihilation. The scientists say moving the clock closer to midnight is meant…

First launched in 1971, the 56th annual World Economic Forum (WEF) opened on Tuesday, convening global leaders from government, business, and technology sectors for this year’s gathering. Attendees at the Davos gathering, nearing 3 000 in number this year, will…

Lively buzz and cheerful chatter filled the air, creating an atmosphere so vibrant that it inspired and energised the youngsters in my neighbourhood as they headed off for the first day of the new school year. I quietly wished that…

Africa is richly endowed with natural resources both above and below the ground, and it boasts the youngest and fastest-growing population in the world. This is not merely a cliché; it is a fact. Many view Africa as the continent…