Finance for rural youth enterprises
The Development Bank of Namibia (DBN) announced that the bank has provided N$8 million to finance 28 rural youth enterprises.A DBN cheque was handed to deputy minister of Sport, Youth and National Service to provide the kickstart to the 28 start-ups at a ceremony officiated over by prime minister, Hon. Saara Kuugongelwa-Amadhila.
Speaking about the significance of the initiative, Kuugongelwa-Amadhila said that the 28 enterprises are part of a wider initiative to provide funding to 121 rural youth enterprises. She said funding for youth enterprises is an important component of Namibia’s goal to achieve sustainable development, under the Fifth National Development Plan (NDP5). The Prime Minister added that the project aims to create 1,210 new, sustainable, permanent jobs.
DBN’s initial involvement consisted of business management training, for 407 young people from the 121 rural youth enterprises, an exercise that involved technical support to the tune of N$1.2 million. This exercise also involved helping the youth identify potential business ideas and opportunities in their constituencies and developing business plans for such.
Subsequently, the bank has availed N$8 million to finance the start-up of the 28 enterprises to the Ministry of Sport, Youth and National Service.
Value
Speaking on behalf of DBN CEO, Martin Inkumbi, the bank’s Head of SME Finance, Robert Eiman, said the bank sees threefold value in the initiative.
“Firstly, the bank has as one of its goals provision of finance for young entrepreneurs. The programme is expected to be a seed for the future of Namibia’s economy. Youth enterprise will be the pool from which it draws its future prosperity and employment creation. The initiative complements existing bank programmes that provide skills-based finance to young professionals, young artisans and finance for other young entrepreneurs through its SME Finance and Investments departments,” he said.
Furthermore, the bank believes that rural enterprise is critical to the future of Namibian prosperity and food security. The fact that the beneficiaries are from rural constituencies will add to attainment of development impact in rural areas.
“Thirdly, the bank seeks to finance agri-processing, an offshoot of manufacturing, as well as agri-industry which supports agriculture. The agricultural roots of many of the enterprises that will benefit from this initiative will foster secondary value adding to agriculture.”
The DBN has provided the technical capacity to initiate the programme as well as funding. The disbursement and administration of finance for the 28 enterprises will be managed by the Ministry of Sports, Youth and National Service.
Jerome Mutumba concluded by urging young entrepreneurs to approach the bank with sustainable business plans to apply for finance as SMEs or to apply for skills-based finance for young artisans or young professionals.