Namibia’s commercial banks hold the key to unlocking significant employment potential, but it is currently cut for the wrong lock. 

To drive job creation in the nation’s vibrant sports and creative sectors, the financial industry must fundamentally move away from evaluating these dynamic fields with the same rigid criteria used for traditional manufacturing. 

All I am saying is that the core challenge is a profound mismatch in business models: a factory offers predictable cash flows and physical machinery as collateral, a film production company operates on project-based funding and intellectual property, while a promising athlete’s primary asset is future potential. 

By demanding years of audited financials and fixed assets, requirements that most creatives and sport professionals cannot meet because banks are not managing risk but instead systemically excluding the very entrepreneurs who can foster new economic growth and youth employment. 

This exclusion is not merely a commercial choice. 

It is reinforced by a legislative framework, notably the Banking Institutions Act (Act No. 2 of 1998), which is structured around conventional notions of collateral and creditworthiness, inherently favouring tangible assets over intangible talent and ideas.

For true transformation, a dual approach is needed, where banking innovation is supported by legislative review. 

I am saying and willing to be corrected that banks can develop specialised units with industry expertise to design flexible products like revenue-sharing agreements or royalty-backed loans tailored to irregular income streams. 

At the same time, the relevant regulation governing banking institutions requires targeted amendments to accommodate these sectors. 

The legislative framework should be revised to legally broaden the definition of acceptable collateral under its prudential lending standards (addressing provisions in sections related to secured lending) to include intellectual property, future contract rights and receivables. 

The amendment should encourage or permit regulatory incentives for banks that establish dedicated funds or use approved alternative risk-assessment models for these high-potential sectors. 

Such change would not dilute financial stability but modernise it, allowing banks to partner with Namibia’s creators. 

The creative and sport industries are not mere leisure activities. 

They are knowledge-based industries with immense power for youth employment, social cohesion and economic diversification. 

I am saying we all know by now that, by insisting that sectors conform to an outdated industrial model, we stifle growth. 

My take is that the challenge and opportunity for Namibia’s commercial banks is to evolve. 

The goal is not to lower standards, but to finally apply the right standards to the engines of our future economy.

As a collective, when we are aligning prudent finance with the actual modus operandi of the creative economy, banks can shift from being passive gatekeepers to active architects of employment, financing a more diversified and resilient national future.

*Mathew Haikali is a sport consultant and managing member of Just Imagine Sport.