By William J. Mbangula Oshakati The Offshore Development Company (ODC) industrial park at Oshikuku, one of three places where such facilities are being constructed in the North, is scheduled to be completed by the end of March. This has been confirmed to New Era by ODC’s Senior Projects Administrator, Simon Pokolo. As part of the ODC programme to promote and help sustain the Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs), the ODC has embarked upon constructing industrial parks at Oshikuku, Okalongo and Oshakati. The facilities at Oshikuku will accommodate 15 business units which will include, among others, a bank, a supermarket, hardware store, communication centre, hammer mills and others. Residents of Oshikuku would obviously consider the banking services coming to their doorstep as a relief since such facilities are only available at Oshakati, about 30 kilometres away, and at Outapi, more than 50 kilometres away. With regard to the construction of similar facilities at Okalongo, Pokolo noted that only last week the ODC had held a strategic meeting with the local authorities to discuss the location of the industrial park there. The first portion of land which was given to the ODC was found to be inappropriate, hence the meeting last week to find a more suitable place. The industrial park at Okalongo will also have the same capacity of 15 business units. At Oshakati the ODC has already secured the land where an agro food storage facility will be constructed and where most of the agricultural produce coming from Etunda irrigation scheme near Ruacana and other projects will be kept for grading and marketing. The actual construction was delayed because some of the stakeholders were not properly consulted. Said Pokolo: “We do not want to build something which will look like a white elephant without anyone utilizing it.” He pointed out that the ODC is currently negotiating with stakeholders like Namwater, Etunda irrigation scheme, Nampower and the Ministry of Agriculture to find ways of helping to develop and sustain one of the most important facilities here. The agro industrial park at Oshakati will also come as a relief to many crop farmers who are compelled by the non-existence of such facilities to send their produce to South Africa for grading and then returned to Namibia only to be sold at higher prices. The parks at Oshikuku, Okahao, Okalongo and Oshakati are just some of the many constructed by the ODC in the North at Ondangwa, Ongwediva, Outapi and Eenhana. One of the biggest of such facilities is the N$24-million business park at Ongwediva with a capacity of 40 business units, where employment was provided for about 150 people.