Lorato Khobetsi-Slinger

A dream to leave a legacy for their children, inspired Jacob and Sophy Williams to build the first black owned shopping centre and service station in Aranos. After years of perseverance to make their dream a reality, the family recently celebrated the official opening of phase one of the Beth-El shopping centre and service station. Jacob said he decided to name the service station Beth-El which means house of God because he had a dream to build a business that will serve as generational wealth for his family. “I want this to be a family thing, it must not just end with me, it will go a long way. This is the only thing (service station) I could do. Retail will not help here, so the service station was the best idea,” he said.

According to Jacob, after they acquired land from the village council and a loan from Development Bank Namibia, the family thought the construction of the service station would be a walk in the park. However, they had to endure a lot of delays. “At first, we thought it will take us two to three months to complete but it took us almost two years to complete phase one. Our second phase is at the back, we are planning to put up a pharmacy, consulting room, barber shop and other small shops. We hope that will be in the next three months,” he said. Jacob is also adamant that the business which is situated at the entrance of the small town will continue to grow because of future developments that are taking place in the town such as the construction of the road between Aranos and Gobabis which will attract a lot of traffic through the town. As a way of contributing to job creation and economic growth in their community, the Jacob family employed over 20 locals from previously disadvantaged backgrounds. “Most of our employees are women, one of our supervisors is also a woman because we are also thinking about women empowerment. We thought of employment creation that is why we only employed people from Aranos because in the south, we really have a problem with unemployment,” he added. Jacob further encouraged other aspiring business owners to not give up on their dreams. He said one should be willing to make sacrifices as well as do a lot of research.