Placido Hilukilwa
Africa-Press – Namibia. THE Ohangwena region is endowed with a wide range of resources, which can be leveraged to bring about much-needed economic activities in order to create jobs, especially for our youths, said industrialization and trade minister Lucia Iipumbu.
Speaking at the opening ceremony of the thirteenth edition of the Eenhana Expo, Iipumbu said that the growth of Namibia’s economic landscape is pegged on the quest to use all available resources and innovate new products to serve the local market and, ultimately, export.
“Therefore, for our businesses to thrive, innovation should be looked at from the broader perspective, which includes new product development, innovative business models and processes, as well as adopting modern business management style,” she said.
She noted that Namibia – and Ohangwena Region in particular – has a variety of products at its disposal, but most of those products go to waste without value addition. These include raw materials such as marula fruits and their derivatives; kalahari melons; ximenia, which are very critical inputs in the cosmetic industry, and many other products which may be value-added and transformed into differentiated products, including eembe (phyllogeiton discolour fruits), wood, and palm fruits.
Iipumbu pointed out key niche sectors which Namibians need to pay special attention to and turn them into viable businesses. These include agriculture and agro-processing, cosmetics, textile, tourism, and manufacturing.
“We have good benchmarking lessons of some of our local businesses in the [Ohangwena] region who have taken the lead over the years in those sectors which I just mentioned. I am aware of a poultry farm in Ondobe, a Cultural tourism business and training centre at Ongula [yaNetanga], and some small manufacturing activities such as tailoring to mention but a few. We, therefore, need to provide the much-needed support to these ventures collectively as the public and private sector,” she said, as she challenged the young people to be innovative and come up with concepts on how they can add value to the resources that are abundant in Ohangwena and other products produced locally by the community.
“The Ministry will support such initiatives, as we believe that is the way to grow our country’s economy,” she said.
“Our Growth at Home strategy,” she said, “drives home the point that, as a country, we should add value to our raw materials and produce high-value goods for our consumption and for export. It further emphasizes the need to develop value chains so that the impact of interventions is maximized. Furthermore, the Ministry is currently finalizing an Informal Economy and Entrepreneurship National Policy to cover the informal sections of our entrepreneurs as well as our youthful start-ups and general entrepreneurship.”
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