‘Force foreigners to sell Nam products’

THE Namibia Chamber of Commerce and Industry (NCCI) has called for a national policy to force foreign-owned retailers to sell local products.

NCCI chief executive officer Tarah Shaanika said currently local manufacturers must apply for a licence at South African chain stores to get their products on these shop shelves in Namibia.’We can’t beg someone outside Namibia to have access to our own markets. To me, that’s illogical,’ Shaanika told businesspeople at an information session of the NCCI on Wednesday.He said it should be ‘national policy’ that Namibian products are sold by all foreign-owned retailers.Shaanika also lashed out at the Receiver of Revenue for taking too long to pay tax refunds to businesses. The Receiver should pay interest and penalties on late refunds, just like businesses are charged interest and penalties when they pay the Receiver too late, he said.Shaanika said the NCCI will ‘seriously talk to the Ministry of Finance’ about this.The NCCI will have equally serious talks with the banking industry, which is ‘very quick to call up collateral’ when businesses run into cash-flow problems.Shaanika said the NCCI receives complaints daily about the way banks, ‘most of which are good members of the NCCI’, treat businesses experiencing tough times. Many times small and medium enterprises (SMEs) have to close down because banks aren’t willing to look at other options but to call up collateral, he said.