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Home / Young entrepreneurs started with only N$100
Young entrepreneurs started with only N$100
2015-11-04Staff Report 2 Windhoek Young people must not only wait for funds to start their businesses, because even with as little as N$100 and a bit of determination one can start a business, says Gabriel Namupolo. The Namibia Rural Development Project (NRDP), an implementing agency for the Namibian Youth Credit Scheme, last week handed over loans to 97 young entrepreneurs to start and expand their business, Namupolo and fellows being among them. Namupolo and his partner, Uendjipa Uanivi, own the Windhoek Fast Food delivery service. They deliver all types of restaurant food from various restaurants and also kapana from single quarters. “What we simply do is you call us and order what you want to be delivered and from where and we bring you your request for as little as N$35.00 anywhere in Windhoek,” Namupolo says. He says they started their business in 2012 with only N$100, renting a motorbike. “Through sales on service delivery we managed to buy more motorbikes with no loan from any bank or any institution. It was very hard to survive and get the business up and running, but we did it,” he says. Namupolo adds that while starting out there were a lot of things that could have killed their business, but they managed to overcome them because they have a vision. “We had bike accidents, low financial cash-flow, low sales, no marketing funds, no trust from clients that we can cater to them, traffic tickets that drained us, cancellation of orders by clients for late deliveries. All these affected our daily sales and turnover, but we kept pushing because we were very determined to make it in life,” he says. Over the past two years they have employed over 15 young people, but only eight are currently with them as drivers, office administrators and Call Centre operators. They got a loan of N$20 000, which Namupolo says they will use to market their business and expand. “Young people must keep pushing and never give up on life, because if you just wait you will end up doing nothing,” concludes Namupolo. 2015-11-04Staff Report 2
