Affordable workspace is not a luxury for small businesses; it is one of the basic conditions for enterprise growth.
When rents are beyond reach, entrepreneurs stay trapped in backyards, informal stalls and survivalist activity instead of moving into spaces where they can produce, employ and compete.
The benefits are practical and immediate.
Lower rental costs free up money for tools, equipment, material and stock. Larger premises can lift productive capacity beyond what a backyard operation allows, while visibility in the right location improves access to customers.
The creation of affordable workspace as a strategy for entrepreneurs to migrate from the informal sector into the mainstream economy and to help newcomers to the business arena scale or grow their enterprises was embraced as a policy at the dawn of Namibia’s nationhood.
This resulted in the government building business incubation centres, small and medium enterprises (SME) business parks and industrial centres across the country.
Windhoek’s municipality and local authorities of larger towns embraced a similar economic growth strategy by creating open markets and SME business hubs.
That is why the neglected state of public enterprise facilities across Namibia should trouble every taxpayer. These centres were not built as monuments to policy ambition; they were meant to become practical stepping stones for Namibians trying to build livelihoods.
It is no better in other towns, but working at Keetmanshoop last week, it was soul-destroying to see four such centres, all built with taxpayer money, either closed, idle, dysfunctional or operating far below their intended purpose.
Interaction with local entrepreneurs revealed possible causes of this sad situation: political infighting, absence of coordination between public sector entities, poor property management, favoritism coupled with dubious tenant selection, officials who do not have the skills nor the ability to run a business centre or industrial property, among others.
Apparently, those properties that cost million dollars to built and due to the lack of maintenance are now in a perilous state.
This is not about creating a handout culture. It is about giving aspiring entrepreneurs a realistic path from informal trading into formal business and giving emerging enterprises the space they need to grow.
At times challenges appear insurmountable yet solutions stare us in the face. Here is something to think about.
Bureaucrats seemingly often have a fixation on the mobilisation of foreign direct investment (FDI) and tend to ignore that an economy grown from the bottom up assures viability in the short term and sustainability eventually.
As for resource allocation, entrepreneurial driven economic growth funding then goes to FDI attraction.
Costly investment promotion missions are embarked upon with lengthy stays abroad, sometimes spanning six months’ stays in costly accommodation attending world trade fairs.
The result nearly always are promises of billions of dollars of FDI yet the reality on the ground reflects a different picture.
FDI has an important economic developmental role but so does grassroots enterprise development.
Existing workspace must be managed better and resources allocated to develop more affordable workspaces.
Is it not time to rethink structures in place that are failing to deliver on their mandate and to create devolved government entities, overseen by regional government administrations, to operate and manage business incubation centres, SME business parks and industrial centres across the country properly?
- Danny Meyer is reachable at danny@smecompete.com
