New Era Newspaper

New Era Epaper
Icon Collap
...
Home / Dinapama supports SMEs to boost economic growth

Dinapama supports SMEs to boost economic growth

2021-11-17  Maihapa Ndjavera

Dinapama supports SMEs to boost economic growth

Dinapama Manufacturing and Supplies is a 100% Namibian-owned garment manufacturer which masters designed clothing and bag manufacturing of all shapes and sizes. 

According to Sylvia Kapena, Senior Sales and Marketing Officer, the company manufactures a wide range of items, including school uniforms, personal protective clothing, corporate wear, sportswear, casual wear, hats and bags.

Dinapama was officially registered in 2009, and operations started in 2010 with a workforce of seven people and five machines at the Wanaheda municipal stalls. Soon afterwards, the workforce increased to over 20 employees. This business has grown in leaps and bounds, and today employs over 380 people currently at their premises in Windhoek’s Northern Industrial area. 

As a rapidly-growing company, Dinapama was been awarded the NMA (Namibia Manufacturers Association) Medium Manufacturer Gold Award in 2015. In March 2017, it also received a PMR Africa Award for the outstanding first overall Clothing Manufacturer Diamond Arrow 2016.

Kapena noted that they import their raw materials from countries like India, Indonesia, China and South Africa.

“Finished products are sold all over Namibia as well as to a few Southern African Development Community (SADC) countries like Angola, Zambia, Zimbabwe and South Africa,” she stated.

The company’s dream is to penetrate the European and American markets. Kapena added that dealing with skills’ transfer at Dinapama is one of the highly respected areas which is handled through innovation and in-house training. “We want to aggressively supply the entire African market before we move on to other parts of the world. Namibia as a nation needs such a move to industrialise and meet the targets in achieving Vision 2030, the National Development Plans (NDPs) and the Growth at Home Strategy”, she explained. 

Due to the effects of Covid-19, Kapena said the company was negatively affected through global supply chain disruptions, which took a bite out of anticipated revenue.

“The pandemic affected us through limited imports of raw materials which are used for product manufacturing. These factors caused a delay in production and decreased revenue generated due to the limited buying power, which was exacerbated by the closure of schools. Price fluctuations on raw materials also impacted us significantly,” she
indicated.  

Furthermore, some other challenges in the manufacturing environment also play a major role, such as the importation of raw materials and the local limited buying power, which makes it difficult to penetrate the market.  In an effort to grow the industry, Dinapama has trained a number of Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) to enable them to support economic growth. This support stems from their belief that no single company can solve the country’s economic challenges alone. It is for this reason that Dinapama has undertaken to develop as many SMEs as possible to boost the domestic economy. 


2021-11-17  Maihapa Ndjavera

Share on social media