NAIROBI (Kenya) – Government officials spearheading trade and investments’ initiatives between Namibia and Kenya are spending too much time on travelling, meetings and speeches instead of making use of policies and resources to create an enabling environment to accelerate trade and deliver tangible results to benefit the business community, Namibia-Kenya Chamber of Commerce founder Elvis Mboya has said.
He said these detractions, in addition to strict government protocols and bureaucracy, including several approvals at different layers and departments, endless promises and pledges, continue to stifle businesses, especially, the underserved ESMEs eager to explore opportunities beyond their borders.
Mboya was responding to a recent meeting held in Nairobi between Kenya’s Prime Cabinet Secretary and Cabinet Secretary for the Ministry of Foreign and Diaspora Affairs, Musalia Mudavadi, and Namibia’s Minister of International Relations and Cooperation Peya Mushelenga, where they pledged to set up a joint trade task force.
Earlier this month, Namibia’s Minister of Information and Communication Technology, Emma Theofelus, also led her ministry’s delegation to meet Kenya’s Deputy President Rigathi Gachagua in Nairobi, where they discussed how Namibia can benefit from Kenya’s advanced ICT industry.
“These are the same meetings and speeches successive leaders have been delivering for the past 30 years. Thereafter, they set up expensive task forces, then the documents will be left to gather dust,” said Mboya, who was newspaper journalist in Windhoek and also served at the Kenya High Commission in Namibia. “It’s unacceptable that for the past 30 years, trade between Namibia and Kenya has remained at its lowest despite the huge potential, yet government officials continue to spend enormous time and resources with very little results.”
Mboya is confident that despite its scarce resources, the newly-created Namibia-Kenya Chamber of Commerce will deliver tangible results in the shortest time possible.
He said the chamber is ready to work with interested organisations for Namibia to benefit from Kenya’s experience in agriculture, particularly tea and coffee, health, information and communication technologies and skills development through knowledge exchange between universities.
Equally, Namibia’s support will benefit Kenya in areas such as mining and the blue economy. Establishment of direct flights between the two countries, he said, will ease logistics challenges.
The Namibia-Kenya Chamber of Commerce, scheduled to be launched later this year, is a platform and bridge for investors and traders interested in exploring new opportunities in Kenya and Namibia – countries that serve as gateways to vast markets – the East African Community (EAC) and the Southern African Development Community (SADC).
The chamber builds on the success of the Namibia-Kenya Marketplace Global, a digital platform launched in 2020, which already connects more than 1 500 businesses and professionals, and successfully hosted Trade and Investment Conferences in Nairobi and Windhoek. – Namibia-Kenya Chamber of Commerce