Walvis Bay
The 25 students and interns who are Namibia Port Authority (Namport) bursary holders were taken on a tour of the port to gain first-hand experience on how the port conducts its day-to-day operations.
The tour, which took place during Namport’s first ever bursary day, was also to show them what they could expect when returning after their studies to take up job opportunities and attachment.
The students received funding in fields such as engineering, law, logistics, finance as well as vocational education and training, according to the CEO of the Namibia Ports Authority, Bisey Uirab.
Namport invested about N$28.6 million in the past six financial years in 30 bursaries and scholarships, including cadetship and apprenticeship schemes.
Uirab pointed out that Vision 2030 aims at transitioning Namibia into an industrialised and globally competitive country of equal opportunity for all.
However to achieve this ambitious goal Namibia needs to develop its human capital, build institutional capacity to absorb the labour force necessary to meet the demands of the economy, and address human resources skills and shortages across all industrial areas.
Thus all Namport bursary and scholarship schemes are targeted towards complementing government efforts in skills development for the country, said Uirab.
He said that as a state-owned enterprise Namport is a key role player in the transport and logistics industry in Namibia and Sub-Saharan Africa, and a contributor to the achievement of Southern Africa Development Community (SADC) regional goals.
“The maritime sector is no exception in this respect. In order to support the economic growth of the country through the development of human resources, Namport has developed a human resources strategic plan aimed at supporting and addressing the ‘people element’. The aim is to develop and capacitate our human capital to have the required capacity reservoir to drive Namport and the country to our envisaged national goals of becoming a logistic hub and an industrialized nation,” he said.
Namport has over the past two years accelerated this strategy through various programmes, such as the capacity building programme, which focuses on capacity enhancement of marine officers – pilots and engineers – and operational equipment operators.
“Our people play an important role in our business. For this reason, we have invested substantial resources in developing and capacity-building our staff and prospective future employees (bursary beneficiaries) over the past years,” he said.