Business

Based on my experience of over 30 years in promoting small businesses in four Asian countries and since 2000 in Namibia, such programmes can only be successful if the participants are carefully selected and if the required training is implemented in the business with additional mentoring. 

Namibia Wildlife Resorts (NWR) management says the institutions have been hard at work addressing some limitations it identified within some of its resorts in the Etosha National Park. At the same time, NWR has been preparing its soon-to-be-launched Hospitality Institute (HI) for later this year.

The Government Institutions Pension Fund (GIPF) has appealed to all former members who left employment due to retirement, resignation, ill-health, disability or retrenchment and have not claimed or received their pension benefits from GIPF to contact the HR offices of their former employers to complete a claim form with the relevant supporting documents for submission to the Fund as soon as possible.  

For Namibia to survive in the medium and long-term, every effort is required to create jobs. As in many other countries, Namibia’s fiscal space to continue supporting the private sector long after the lockdown period is extremely limited. After a four-year economic crisis, the coronavirus pandemic outbreak finds Namibia in an extremely vulnerable position. 

Following the collapse of global oil prices since the emergence of Covid-19, the Ministry of Mines and Energy has announced a massive N$1.00 per litre decrease for both petrol and diesel prices as of Wednesday, 6 May 2020.

Air Namibia will start flying again locally as of today, following the announcement of stage two under the state of emergency. Regional and international flights remain suspended until further notice.   Passengers can now fly between Eros and Ondangwa, Rundu, Katima Mulilo, Lüderitz, Oranjemund and Walvis Bay.

The Covid-19 pandemic has caused far-reaching disruption to everyday life and business. Over the past two months, many start-ups were directed to close temporarily to prevent the further transmission of the virus, causing sudden and massive loss of revenue.

The latest Financial Stability Report (FSR) by the Bank of Namibia (BoN) shows that risks to Namibia’s financial stability have increased significantly since 2018 as a result of the economic contraction experienced in 2019, coupled with the expected impact of Covid-19 going forward. Since the central bank’s last FSR, the probability and impact of most risks increased, particularly in the macroeconomic environment. 

Why customer care is essential during lockdown?
Several entrepreneurs may ask this question. Without customers during the current lockdown customer care is not required. This is true, but every entrepreneur has to plan for the future. Running businesses often told me: “We don’t have time for new approaches. We must concentrate on making money.”

The Bank of Namibia expects the domestic economy to contract by 6.9% in 2020, following a milder contraction of 1.1% in 2019. This is according to its economic outlook update for April 2020, which was released yesterday.