LÜDERITZ – Nam-mic Financial Services Holding (Pty) Ltd (NFSH) CEO Walter Don said the company’s investments in various sectors currently stands at N$1.2 billion.
The company is majorly owned by trade unions affiliated to the ruling party Swapo.
Don said NFSH is a truly broad-based black economic empowerment company, with 100 percent of its shares owned by unions affiliated to the National Union of Namibian Workers (NUNW).
Don said this during the official inauguration of the Namibia Food and Allied Workers Union (Nafau) regional office in Lüderitz last weekend.
He said Nam-mic at present owns eight percent in Capricorn Investment Holdings; 12 percent in Santam Namibia and 16.4 percent in Sanlam Namibia. Director’s valuation of the investment currently totals N$1.2 billion.
NFSH is currently owned by Nam-mic Holdings 51.1 percent, Effort Investment Holdings Company (29.6 percent), Nafau Investment Holdings (9.8 percent), Namibia National Teachers Union (7.5 percent), Zealot Investment (1.6 percent) and Namibia Farm Workers Union (0.4 percent).
“It is the vision of Nam-mic to economically empower Namibians by creating opportunities for both our main stakeholders, the unions, and ultimately for their members. We believe that by doing this, we contribute to the economic development of Namibia in general,” said Don.
He further stated that it is in line with this vision that NFSH decided to re-invest in the community it operates in, by establishing the Nam-mic Social Investment Fund. It is with the union members in mind that the focus are areas of this social investment fund were determined, being education, training, sustainable employment and health.“Under education we will fund organisations that will provide training to the members of the NUNW and its affiliates. The main focus here will be the retraining of workers to improve their chances of finding a job in the ever changing job market. We want to teach them additional skills to make the multifaceted in the workplace. For instance a welder should not be limited to only being a welder, but should learn another skill so that if his job as a welder becomes redundant, he/she can find another job with an additional skill,” Don added.
“We also take the health of workers seriously. Therefore our another focus area is health and in particular HIV/Aids and related diseases. We will fund awareness campaigns and counselling for union members living with this disease.” Don said the aim is to educate the nation and therefore Nam-mic has made bursaries available to children of union members studying accounting/finance, information technology and mining engineering. Because of the close working relations between Nam-mic and University of Namibia and Namibia University of Science and Technology, bursaries have been awarded to students studying at these institutions, he sasid. Currently, Nam-mic has five accounting/finance students of which three are males and two are female, five ICT students, of which three are male and two are female, three mining engineering students, who are all female.To further enhance their opportunity for employment, Nam-mic will also allow these bursary recipients to do internship at the company or at the investment associate companies, so that they are familiar with the working environment after completion of their studies.