Young people shine at SNIEA 2006

THE Sam Nujoma Innovative Entrepreneurs Award (SNIEA) 2006 ceremony saw a number of deserving young businesspeople scooping prizes at a gala event held in Windhoek in Friday.

Twenty-five-year-old Rebekka Hidulika, a fledging tour operator who started Wonderzone Tours in January, walked away with the most prestigious award after being crowned the SNIEA overall winner. The evening marked a double celebration for Hidulika, as she also scooped the Women in Business award.Beaming with pride, Hidulika thanked the Joint Consultative Council (JCC) for organising the yearly event which seeks to reward and promote those operating in the small and medium-sized enterprise (SME) sector.She was also quick to point out the difficulties that business people of her calibre experienced from commercial banks when seeking financing, much to the crowd’s delight.Delivering the motivational speech for the event, prominent local businessman and Managing Director of the NSX-listed Trustco International Group of Companies, Quinton van Rooyen, said there were no shortcuts in business.”Only creating a product without generating wealth does not make you an entrepreneur… inheriting wealth through an unjust system or otherwise does not qualify you as an entrepreneur,” he said.In his speech, which was well received by the audience, Van Rooyen gave words of encouragement to SME operators and explained that entrepreneurs were people who took ideas and opportunities and turned them into profitable enterprises.Winners in other categories were: Bright Idea – Emancipation newspaper, Trade and services – Jay Jay Body Repairs, Manufacturing – Global Polymer Industries of Otjiwarongo, Youth – GAB Capital and Services, Women in Business – Wonderzone Tours and HIV-AIDS Workplace Programme – OVC Foundation from Otavi.Guests attending the SNIEA included former President Sam Nujoma, Deputy Minister of Industry and Trade Bernhard Esau, Namdeb MD Inge Zaamwani, Barloworld Namibia MD, Deena Chetty and Namibia Breweries MD, Segun Adebanji.The evening marked a double celebration for Hidulika, as she also scooped the Women in Business award.Beaming with pride, Hidulika thanked the Joint Consultative Council (JCC) for organising the yearly event which seeks to reward and promote those operating in the small and medium-sized enterprise (SME) sector.She was also quick to point out the difficulties that business people of her calibre experienced from commercial banks when seeking financing, much to the crowd’s delight.Delivering the motivational speech for the event, prominent local businessman and Managing Director of the NSX-listed Trustco International Group of Companies, Quinton van Rooyen, said there were no shortcuts in business.”Only creating a product without generating wealth does not make you an entrepreneur… inheriting wealth through an unjust system or otherwise does not qualify you as an entrepreneur,” he said.In his speech, which was well received by the audience, Van Rooyen gave words of encouragement to SME operators and explained that entrepreneurs were people who took ideas and opportunities and turned them into profitable enterprises.Winners in other categories were: Bright Idea – Emancipation newspaper, Trade and services – Jay Jay Body Repairs, Manufacturing – Global Polymer Industries of Otjiwarongo, Youth – GAB Capital and Services, Women in Business – Wonderzone Tours and HIV-AIDS Workplace Programme – OVC Foundation from Otavi.Guests attending the SNIEA included former President Sam Nujoma, Deputy Minister of Industry and Trade Bernhard Esau, Namdeb MD Inge Zaamwani, Barloworld Namibia MD, Deena Chetty and Namibia Breweries MD, Segun Adebanji.