The mushrooming of health training institutes in Namibia in response to national health challenges could have a disastrous outcome. 

This is according to Zambezi region’s acting health director, Richard Likokoto who observed a recent wave of health training institutions opening within the region.

Likokoto said many of the graduates from those institutions might face unemployment as the job market is too small to absorb them all.

“We have an increase in health training institutions in this region. This is a welcome development as it will help us reduce the dependency on expatriates such as nurses from outside Namibia,” he said. 

He could, however, not provide the exact number of health training centres in the region when asked.

 “We know that when these institutions are increasing, very soon, we will have serious unemployment within the health sector,” said Likokoto.

In terms of the availability of health facilities, the Zambezi region has Katima Mulilo district hospital, three health centres, and 25 primary healthcare clinics.

Assertively, he assured the ministry is looking into the issue closely so it can diversify health services to ensure they absorb as many health workers as possible. 

Another pressing issue he raised is the skills shortage in specialised fields.

“We have few people graduating locally which makes us as a ministry depend on outside workers. We really encourage institutions to look at these areas to ensure our youth are also educated in these fields of study,” Likokoto recommended.

He also highlighted the negative impact of youth unemployment on the health sector.

“Youth unemployment is affecting the health services. You can talk of pregnancies, you can talk of lack of nutritional food, we see a lot of diseases in our facilities, violence, alcohol, drug abuse, mental health…all these cases are beginning to take a toll on our youthful people. We need to be concerned,” said Likokoto.

He thus called for urgent intervention so that unemployed but qualified graduates such as nurses, agriculturists, and teachers can be absorbed into the system.

“These ones cannot wait for policy intervention. There is a need on the ground to have teachers in the classroom and nurses in the health facilities. So, intervention is urgently required,” he suggested. 

A student nurse at Shira
Medical Institute, who prefers anonymity, is optimistic she will land a job once she graduates next year.

“I am a graduate with a bachelor’s degree in Human Resources but could not get a job for years. I then decided to study nursing and I am hopeful I will get a job in the health sector,” she said. 

Shiramed Medical Institute is one of the first privately-owned medical institutions that was established in Zambezi in 2018 whose intention is to partner with the government in addressing the critical shortage of nurses through private-public partnership. 

A concerned community member, Jimmy Lilungwe is of the opinion that if the decentralisation policy was fully functional, regional and local governments would have skills development centres that can help absorb unemployed youth within the regions.

“The decentralisation policy is just on paper but has not been fully implemented. Let us make the decentralisation policy functional and not just on paper,” he remarked.

He, however, took a swipe at idle youth who spend the whole day on social media instead of engaging in productive conversations to improve their lives and create employment. 

“Throughout the day, the youth are busy on TikTok. It breaks the thinking capacity when you spend your whole day on TikTok. The youth should use social media to copy good ideas to implement in their businesses. Don’t use social media to do character assassination. But the youth is forced also to do that. We want skills development centres at Bukalo, Kabbe North, Sibinda, Linyanti, and Judea Lyaboloma so we cater to the youth to have something to do. Remember, a dormant mind is a devil’s playground. The devil finds pleasure in dormant brains,” said Lilungwe.

He suggested that the government set up agricultural centres to empower the youth to venture into business, citing the region’s rich natural resources.

“We have money in Namibia but our priorities are misplaced. It is a country with all the resources but the priorities are misplaced. We have been singing Caprivi as a bread basket. It’s only a basket but no bread. You are voicing out that Caprivi has the best soil…just for stepping on but not for producing food. We are sharing the river with Zambia and Angola but why don’t we have fully-fledged agricultural hubs?” questioned Lilungwe.

- anakale@nepc.com.na