Having a business idea is an exciting moment and the excitement ends when one does not have the means to put the idea into practice. 

That is despite the knowledge at hand. It even becomes worse when the individual cannot sell the idea to anyone or to institutions with the means to implement it. It further gets worse after multiple failed attempts to obtain suitable start-up capital to convert the idea into a well-established business, especially from scratch. So many people are roaming around the streets with sustainable business ideas, but funding their ideas is a serious local issue, that is preventing new firms from emerging. 

Knowing that business is the backbone of any country’s economy, more funding initiatives are needed to fairly fund various individuals in the Country. Even though individuals are offered training to obtain business knowledge, it is actually half works from those institutions that are offering those training, specifically in the absence of start-up packages attached to those training or mentorship sessions. 

One may say, it’s enough with training, perhaps the focus should be shifted to locating those individuals and monitoring their operations after funding them. Let it be known that most of these individuals are from poor families, therefore, the continuous culture of requesting these poor individuals to present their collateral so they qualify to obtain funding is merely a barrier to them. 

It is a sad reality whereby numerous individuals are offered business training without any financial packages or just equipment attached to such training. Providing soft skills alone, without a financial package is an old-fashioned practice. 

Lack of funding among individuals who had the courage to establish their businesses has pushed them to borrow money from family members and close friends as a source of funding their business but the actual impact of that amount of money could not handle all their business functions and eventually ceased. 

One may ask if the officials who are sitting on government resources are listening to these types of cries. Are these cries getting attention through debates in our National Assembly? If the answer is no, it is sad to assume that this issue will be felt until Jesus comes. Funding individuals with ideas is imperative, as it will contribute to diminishing unemployment and poverty rates in the country. 

 It is important to note that, when so many businesses are introduced, it means more job opportunities for job hunters who might later use their income to start their own. 

The current SME policy has so many contradictions on this issue and its teeth are not sharp to chew it up on behalf of desperate Namibians, who have business ideas and hold no collaterals. It is worth noting that some ministries have business grant/equipment schemes where they fund individuals who have sustainable business ideas, but one may wonder about the fairness in the recommendation process. 

In my view, these schemes stand a solid chance of filling the funding gap in a middle-income country like ours. Despite the existence of these schemes, some do not cater for expensive ideas and those that fund expensive ideas have limited budgets to cater for more individuals per year.  

A situation that requires officials involved to propose a fat budget for these schemes to make visible impacts. 

Although some individuals attempted to register their businesses, their registration status does not bail them out at all. 

Some resort into applying for small tenders and eventually got nothing. Getting nothing after all those attempts may be influenced by tough competition, but more needs to be done to create funding opportunities for those individuals to ensure they have the entire setup to conduct business even if they win a tender. 

Let it be a disturbing statement, as an official or a politician to inform individuals out there to create their own jobs through businesses, knowing the unsolved funding issue in the motherland.  It is indeed a disturbing statement to those who have tried multiple times and realised that it is finance that thwarted their dreams of creating those jobs. On the other hand, the fact that our commercial banks are not effectively addressing this issue because they are also in business and seem not ready to take the risk of losing money should the funded business fail, one may pray for the government to fully take ownership of this issue by expanding our business grant/equipment schemes. 

Grant schemes are proven by the World Bank as the best strategy to support local entrepreneurs. It is also worth noting that, some of these commercial banks are foreign owned, they may not want to take a risk by funding our people but might prefer risking it with the entrepreneurs in their home countries. 

Commercial banks can always find reasons to defend their failure to fund business ideas, especially when they cannot dispossess properties in the event of business failure. Furthermore, this issue requires government efforts to effectively collaborate further with external and internal stakeholders to ensure our people can easily obtain start-up capital to improve their livelihood.

*Tobias Nanhinda is a librarian in the ministry of gender. The views in this article are merely his and not of his employer.