The Africa Hospitality Investment Forum (AHIF) Conference took place in Windhoek, Namibia
from 25 to 27 June. Stakeholders in the hospitality and tourism industry, including investors and industry executives, gathered under the theme “Inspiring Growth, Powering Investment.” The main topics discussed included the potential for future developments, and investment in the domestic hospitality and tourism industry throughout the African continent.
As gold sponsors of AHIF, First National Bank (FNB) and Rand Merchant Bank (RMB) demonstrated their commitment to supporting and driving investment in Africa’s expanding hospitality sector.
Tourism minister Pohamba Shifeta opened the forum, and welcomed patrons on behalf of Vice President Netumbo Nandi-Ndaitwah. The speech set the tone for the conference, and Shifeta highlighted the importance of Namibia’s growing tourism sector and its vital contribution to the country’s economy.
The tourism industry contributed approximately 7% of Namibia’s GDP in 2022, according to the United Nations Tourism Satellite Account (TSA) report, equating to N$14.3 billion. Tourism and hospitality remain a major growth area for Namibia, and there is a lot of potential for expansion, and welcoming new tourists as well as business travellers.
One of the panel discussions on day two of the forum,” Capitalising Growth: Spotlight on Active Development Financial Institutions (DFI)”, focused on the role of DFIs. A panel of international and local experts discussed how DFIs support sustainable development projects by aligning their investment criteria with long-term economic goals.
Commercial banks provide short-term financing to bridge initial funding gaps of projects in the hospitality sector.
The panel discussion was moderated by Mark Dunford, CEO of Knight Frank. The panel of experts consisted of, Ewan Cameron, Director of Africa Westmont Hospitality, Connie-Marlene Theyse, Head of Enterprise Banking at FNB Commercial, and John Steytler, CEO of the Development Bank of Namibia.
The director of Westmont Hospitality Africa, Cameron, added, “I would like to think that working with development banks means you have a partner who sits down and asks questions about the structure, rather than just getting comfortable with the business plan. Sometimes DFIs have their relevance questioned, but I believe that DFIs are indeed relevant.”
Theyse emphasised, “DFIs have a responsibility to enable socio-economic development, and this is a key driver of their funding decisions. Commercial banks look at whether a project is commercially viable, and whether a loan can be repaid. When it comes to funding, DFIs and commercial banks often complement each other. For example, greenfield projects may initially require a combination of DFI funding and equity injections.”