ONDANGWA - In the quest to address skills shortages in the country, the electricity utility Nored yesterday awarded bursaries to three first-year students.
The students are pursuing studies in Accounting and Electrical Engineering at the University of Namibia (Unam) and the Namibian University of Science and Technology (Nust).

The students will each receive N$90 000 per year and in return, they will be required to work for Nored for a timeframe equivalent to the number of years they received the bursary.
This is the second year that Nored is awarding bursaries. Speaking at the handover, Nored’s CEO Fillemon Nakashole said investing in education is key to address the problem of skills shortage across all sectors of the economy. 
“Nored as a great stakeholder for education, understands the pivotal role that education plays in the social and economic transformation of our country,” said Nakashole.

Nakashole’s speech was read on his behalf by the company’s spokesperson Simon Lukas.
Nakashole said the awarding of bursaries was implemented to support government efforts towards national development goals.
He added that it was further necessitated to ensure that young people in the country acquire the knowledge, skills and values required to lead fulfilling and happy lives and subsequently become contributing members of our society.
In the same vein, the CEO reminded the recipients that they scored the bursaries because of their hard work and commitment.
He encouraged the recipients to continue to work hard.

“As you navigate the higher education environment, it holds many opportunities, but also many challenges. Eventually, success is dependent on you. You need to keep up the hard work and avoid all the obvious temptations,” said Nakashole further.
The Dean of the Faculty of Engineering at Unam, Petrina Johannes, expressed gratitude to Nored for their commitment and effort to building the necessary capacity for Namibia to attain its developmental goals.

“Dreams will remain dreams if there is no one to implement them,” said Johannes.
Johannes said one of the challenges they face in the engineering faculty is local expertise to teach, hence it continues to rely on expatriates.
One of the beneficiaries, Stephanus Nanduwa expressed appreciation to Nored for the sponsorship.
In addition to Nanduwa, Nedved Muleke and Teopolina Ndeshilile were also awarded bursaries.
– nashipala@nepc.com.na