By Francis Tsawayo WINDHOEK As a counter-measure to the ever-increasing need for IT expertise in the country, Global Bits Software Namibia, a company with 100 percent representation at management level opened its doors to the public last week at the Kaiserkrone Building. Global Bits Software offers a complete set of Oracle products, such that it creates a flexible platform for Oracle product licensing, consulting, support and, most importantly, training on all Oracle products, the Managing Director, Veronica Etsebeth, revealed. The new centre comprises three training rooms that can accommodate around 30 delegates and it offers facilities for meetings, and three rooms with a capacity to accommodate six people each were allocated for this purpose. The training ensures a thorough skills base across all Oracle products such as Database, Application Server, Portal Collaboration Suite and ERP Suite, with a combination of SCL, PL/SQL, Java, Reports and forms as well as on-site skills transfers, Etsebeth said. At the launch last week, Etsebeth described the occasion as the beginning of a new era in broad base IT skills transfer and skills development. She noted that the establishment would fully support the vision of the first Minister of Higher Education, today Prime Minister Nahas Angula, as well as Vision 2030. Etsebeth said that Prime Minister Nahus Angula pointed out that it remained a struggle for many countries to provide education to meet the needs of the people shortly after independence and, as a result, Namibia has a proud record that up to 25 percent of the national budget is allocated towards education. “This Private Sector Education Centre will provide much more than training and will complement the government vision,” Etsebeth said. In addition to this was the Chairman of the Board of Directors’ Tjirepo Hijarunguru, who informed that Epia Investment Holdings, an empowerment company, owns 26 percent of the stakes in Global Bits software Namibia. Epia is a grass-roots empowerment group, and the move will enable training to be brought to the disadvantaged groups to become computer-literate and add value to the accomplishment of goals set for 2030,Hijarunguru said. Global Bits is a trademark also found in the United Kingdom, South Africa, and now in Namibia, with each company registered separately to support a specific focus and to have the company structures support the vision, strategic planning and programme initiatives of clients. Apart from Etsebeth and Haijarunguru, the directors of the Namibia Centre also include Szacky Nujoma and Sarie Britz.