Professor Anicia Peters, Pro-Vice Chancellor: Research, Innovation, and Development at the University of Namibia (UNAM), this week said Information Technology (IT) should have been considered an essential service provider in the country. 
Peters highlighted that the initial lack of recognition of the technology sector as essential service providers at the onset of the lockdown was not a good move from the authorities. She said technology plays the biggest part in providing platforms for online learning, health care and remote collaboration for SMEs, enterprises and government sectors. “The most positive thing from the pandemic is how we all came together in IT,” she said.

Peters made these remarks as the guest of honour recently at the inauguration of Salt Essential IT office. She is a Namibian computer scientist specialising in human-computer interaction. “It’s like Namibians are the underdogs. It is a misconception that our education is inferior. Many Namibians are making incredible waves internationally and they are the countries best-kept secrets,” said Peters in her address to Salt. 
Salt Essential IT is the Microsoft Country Partner of the Year Winner of 2020, as well as the winner of three Diamond Arrow Awards in 2020 for Cloud Services, Data Centres and ICT Consulting. Before and during the Covid-19 lockdown, Salt was responsible for enabling over 20 000 Namibians to work and learn from anywhere. 

In line with international trends of remote working, and in light of the new normal, Salt embraced this trend by moving into a smaller office space. Salt employees now have the opportunity to choose to work remotely or from the office. 
In contradiction to international trends for technology companies, Salt employs mostly female staff and has seen an increase in the usage of the tools they provide to its customers who work remotely. 

“The way technology is consumed is not only allowing businesses to deliver smarter services to their customers but also contributes to overall operational cost saving, enabling them to weather the economic storm in an already struggling economy,” said Vanessa Maresch, commercial expansion manager.
The recent Salt Essential IT office inauguration was attended by Salt’s chairman of the board Bisey Uirab.