Windhoek NCCI branch AGM raises more questions than answers

POOR attendance, a lack of communication between members and the executive and confusion about the NCCI’s mandate were some of the features of the National Chamber of Commerce’s (NCCI) Windhoek Branch AGM meeting last night.

Of the 198 members of the organisation, only about 36 attended the event. The discussion at the AGM revolved around members’ questions about the effectiveness of the organisation. It was established that there was a lack of communication between members and the board, leading to a situation in which members’ needs were not met, which in turn made them leave the organisation.In a vicious cycle this then led to the organisation being less effective as it had fewer funds to work with. Chairperson Kauna Ndilula responded that members ‘need to communicate their needs’ in order for the organisation to know which areas to address, as the NCCI is only ‘as strong as our membership’.She could not pinpoint a reason for the low turnout but said it was ‘lower than last year’. It was suggested that sending invitations by e-mail only was perhaps the problem, as especially SME members often have no Internet access.On the other hand, Ndilula said there was a ‘more active discussion this year’. Some of the main concerns of businesses that the NCCI was asked to address are the hold-ups that Government ministries are causing and confusion around the regulation of SMEs.There were also questions about the NCCI’s capacity to reach out to small and informal businesses. One member went as far as saying that Government inefficiency is ‘costing people jobs’ and that help from the NCCI on this matter would solve a lot of problems. Other members from smaller businesses queried Government’s handling of SME issues. They said, for example, that the exact size of an SME is a mystery and handled arbitrarily by Government ministries.The Windhoek branch of the NCCI made a profit of about N$8 500 in the last financial year, substantially better than the N$56 000 loss of the previous year. This was mainly due to fundraising activities which the executive said were actually beyond its mandate but which it felt were necessary due to a lack of new members’ fees.