Tuulikki Abraham
Lüderitz
The Namibia Chamber of Commerce and Industry (NCCI) branch at Lüderitz last week hosted a breakfast meeting that was sponsored by First National Bank at a local hotel where delegates expounded on the challenges businesses faced at the town.
NCCI branch chairman at Lüderitz, Manu Namukomba, explained that the meeting, the first for this year, aimed to provide a platform for local business leaders.
“The rationale is to provide our business community a space for indispensable business networking and support opportunities. This event is a collaboration between NCCI – Lüderitz branch and FNB Namibia – Lüderitz branch,” stated Namukomba.
Namukomba said the NCCI Lüderitz branch experienced some challenges but there were also some milestones achieved. He said NCCI at Lüderitz and the business community of Aus managed to address the issue of spotted hyenas that were preying on wild horses in Aus.
Due to the drought, wild animals in that area such as oryx and springboks ran away, and the spotted hyenas started to target wild horses that are in a way the backbone of the tourism business at Aus and Lüderitz.
Namukomba informed business people that discussions are still on the table although there were proposals to relocate the wild horses and not the spotted hyenas. He emphasised that the business people feel this is something that cannot be accepted, as they feel that they should rather relocate the hyenas because the horses attract many tourists to the area.
“The horses have become a national tourist attraction for our town and an icon of our economy in terms of how many people are employed in the hospitality industry in Aus and Lüderitz,” said Namukomba.