Minister of Industrialisation and Trade, Lucia Iipumbu has said that since the 1997 SME National Policy extended through to the 2016 MSME National Policy, various support programmes have been availed by the Ministry to support the MSMEs both in the formal and informal sector.
Responding to questions that had been posed by PDM Parliamentarian, Jennifer van den Heever around what government had done to support MSMEs, the minister highlighted that notable of these are the Equipment Aid Scheme, Business Infrastructure Support Programme (sites and premises to house SMEs at up to 30% off market discount rates), Industrial Upgrading and Modernisation Programme (IUMP) as well as SDG Impact Facility and EMPRETEC NAMIBIA (which provides entrepreneurial training).
Detailing some of the intervention, Iipumbu noted EMPRETEC Namibia whichshe said is collaboration with UNDP Namibia and Ghana EMPRETEC with the explicit aim to avert the very low entrepreneurial outcomes of our country. The aim is to train our MSMEs and larger enterprises into appropriate entrepreneurial behaviour to ensure that they can create sustainable business going forward.
“So far we have trained over 90 entrepreneurs of which 40 were vulnerable categories (disabled, poverty stricken etc). Under EMPRETEC, we have also collaborated with the Ministry of Higher Education to train more than 20 youth in 2019. In 2021, EMPRETEC NAMIBIA skills were imparted to 25 trainees of our Gemstone training at Karibib,” she said.
She went on to pin point the Industrial Upgrading and Modernisation Programme (IUMP) during the 2021-2022 periods which supported over 40 business beneficiaries across all sector.
Furthermore, the SDG Impact Facility which is a collaboration with UNDP Namibia and Standard Bank Namibia as well as the Environmental Investment Fund was mentioned.
“The aim is to support and fund sustainable social enterprises as access to finance continue to hamper our efforts at business development. So far in 2021 we have funded over 95 enterprises under this facility and aim to grow the fund into an endowment fund with other interested partners,” the minister expressed.
Another one is Charcoal trainings for SMEs in collaboration with the Namibia Charcoal Association.
The series of training on sustainable charcoal production aimed at enhancing human capacity development by empowering MSMEs with new skills and technology, and equipment utilization through practical sessions on sustainable charcoal production. So far 40 MSMEs has received training in the charcoal value chain.
Iipumbu also mentioned Gemstone Trainings for MSMEs and youth in which the ministry has so far trained over 200 beneficiaries since 2010 of which at least 60 found employment in the diamond polishing and cutting sector.
“We trained another 25 beneficiaries in 2021 and of which 16 are now placed in employment and hope to train 5 of them as Train of Trainers in 2023. In 2022 we graduated another 23 trainees.”
“Through the “Pitching for Resilience” program a collaboration with German Government, participating MSMEs receive advice, support and a grant for the economic recovery of their company as post-Covid-19 support. Pitching for Resilience distributed grants of between N$6000.00 and N$ 60, 000.00 to 840 MSMEs in all 14 regions of Namibia by December 2021,” Iipumbu affirmed.
Lastly, the minister said that the School Uniform Import Replacement Programme is another key intervention relevant to the discussion here.
“The Ministry is working with various stakeholders and leveraging on our garment centres that we built to develop the key intervention to ensure that our MSMEs can supply school uniforms in all the regions of our country,” she said.
On an issue of access to credit without stringent conditions, Iipumbu reiterated that the problem is marked by duality.
“It is not only access to credit but also availability of appropriate credit. During the period of 2019-2022 the MIT carried out Private Sector Development Surveys which consistently showed that access to and cost of finance remained a perennial problem especially amongst the MSMEs.
“Given that the question from the Honourable Member Van Den Heever pertains mostly to collateral, the Ministry aims to table a National Policy on Informal Economy, Startups and Entrepreneurship and its Attendant Act. In the Policy we will work on extensions of definition of collateral. Further we can still rework and reintroduce a formal funding mechanisms through consolidating our current grant efforts. The consultations on the Informal Economy policy will provide us with requisite guidance,” concluded Iipumbu.