Rundu
The co-owner of Green Cycle Investment Henny Seibeb says small and medium enterprises (SMEs) can only grow if government looks into empowering them. He thus urged the government to put in place a SME policy that favours locals when it comes to tenders for schools, clinics, hospitals and roads.
Seibeb was speaking to New Era at the recent event where the Minister of Urban and Rural and Development, Sophia Shaaningua, handed over 64 mass houses in Rundu as part of the nationwide handover.
When asked how he felt about the government awarding tenders to big foreign companies at the expense of equally competent local bidders, he said government should put trust in local contractors as they are capable to deliver and thus they need government’s support.
He said SMEs have the potential to do quality work and thus they should be given work on big projects for them to gain experience that will enable them to grow their business and gain the requisite skills.
“Local SMEs must be supported; the government must give all projects under N$50 million to locals. Why do Namibians need to partner for a N$50 million tender to build an office complex?” Seibeb queried.
“What government needs to do is put international companies on billion dollar projects that are complicated, that locals cannot perform. I’m not against the Chinese or other foreigners but even if you go to China there is no way Henny Seibeb will get a tender in China because their SME policies are clear, and elsewhere, even in Europe or USA, everywhere.”
“Even in India, which is the largest democracy and the most populated Commonwealth country, there is a large number of middle-class people today – why? Because of their SME policy which is very effective,” he said.
Seibeb said he was very happy that the NHE and the Ministry of Urban and Rural Development had given them the chance to construct the Rundu mass houses, where they had also subcontracted locals.
“Now, for example, what we did in our case is that we said no we are not going to partner with a foreign company and we decided to subcontract local people. All we needed in our case was the project management aspect. You don’t really need a South African to come tell you how to lay bricks; why should we go and hire somebody from outside?” he said.
“I mean you can see the results are there, there was no fighting whatsoever between employees and contractors. The only delay came from government in not paying us on time – nonetheless things ran smoothly and that is what we want,” he told New Era.
Green Cycle Investment was initially given 308 houses to build, but things changed so the company is only building 188. The first 64 units were handed over last week and the company now remains with 124 that need to be delivered, which the company says will be finalised in the next two months.