The founder of an annual business summit, Martin Nankela, has encouraged the youth to get busy and not complain that government is not creating enough jobs for them. Nankela, a director of Cross Branding Investments, was speaking this weekend during the second annual business summit in Windhoek.
The summit came into force last year as a way to encourage people to enter the business sphere and as a means to show the youth how to excel through challenging times such as the Covid-19 outbreak and a depressed economy.
“One stream of income is not enough. Anyone who wants to make an extra income should grasp such opportunities to learn financial literacy. The summit was created as a platform for networking with industry players,” explained Nankela.
Finance minister Iipumbu Shiimi last week called Covid-19 the biggest calamity since the Second World War. He was speaking at an alumni thought leadership networking event facilitated by the Alumni Association’s Namibia Chapter of the Stellenbosch Business School. The event explored and evaluated the Namibian economy and how a better future can be reimagined for its youth.
“The structure of the economy is not absorbing youth. It is not creating enough jobs for anybody,” said Shiimi.
According to him, the immediate thing is to change Namibia’s economic structure for it to absorb everyone, while managing the pandemic. He stated government is trying all means as solutions for the youth to partake in programmes provided and meaningfully contribute to the country’s development.
Shiimi noted most small and medium enterprises are challenged with lack of collateral, mentoring and coaching, equity, market access and capital. At the same occasion, local economist Salomo Hei said Namibia’s education system is currently producing unskilled youth. Laying some recommendations, he noted government should consider allocating a reasonable amount to research and development. “Without proper data, problems will not be identified making it hard for proper interventions. There is a need to strengthen research,” said Hei.
He said green schemes have the ability to absorb most of the youth, adding that government should pursue new alternatives to the already existing ones.
mndjavera@nepc.com.na