Patriotism can drive economic development by promoting local industries, entrepreneurs and innovation, Vice President Netumbo Nandi-Ndaitwah has said. 

She was speaking at the Youth Forge event hosted by the Tukwatha Youth Organisation (TYO) in Windhoek last Thursday.

 TYO, a youth development and empowerment organisation, hosted the Youth Forge event under the theme ‘Igniting patriotism and fuelling industry’ to create platforms and foster channels to ready Namibian youth for their roles towards attaining economic independence.

 The organisation has hosted several youth empowerment events since its inception in 2022 – and while delivering the keynote address at the Youth Forge event, Nandi-Ndaitwah said Hendrina Kudhingililwa, the president and founder of TYO and her team, demonstrated a great desire to drive change and empower their fellow youth. 

They do this through conversations with the youth, she said, noting that one of the biggest challenges facing the Namibian nation is poor service delivery at both private and public sector levels.

 “The services we need to service both the private and public sector is more in the public sector. Hence, when there is poor service delivery coming from the public sector, it has a negative impact on the private sector – and this is a concern because it is an indication of a lack of patriotism in this country,” said Nandi-Ndaitwah.

 The vice president further remarked that most government offices have young people shaping policies and serving in interdisciplinary roles. However, the most unfortunate scenario in this situation is that some of these young people are not doing their work properly, which causes a backlog in service delivery.

 She further remarked that unless the youth is able to demonstrate selfless attributes of patriotism towards their nation and people, real development will remain stagnant.

 “I have a strong feeling that patriotism is needed if we are to move and grow. Our young people are the ones now who have to take the baton for economic independence of this country. The new industries are here – but if we are not careful, they can be snatched out of our hands,” Nandi-Ndaitwah said.

 The VP encouraged the youth to skill up and shape up in research skills to ready themselves to drive emerging industries, and ensure the money from new industries continues to be recycled in the Namibian economy.

-Nampa