Cabinet has approved a business model for the implementation of the local coffins and caskets manufacturing support scheme under the guardianship of the Ministry of Industrialisation and Trade, as part of the ‘Growth at Home’ strategy.
This was announced by Deputy Minister of Information and Communication Technology, Emma Theofelus on Thursday while presenting the latest Cabinet resolutions where she noted that Cabinet directed that the scheme should be geared towards developing a robust timber industry giving priority to locally harvested timber.
The local coffins and caskets manufacturing scheme was established after Namibia experienced a shortage of coffins in June and July when the country recorded the highest number of deaths since the COVID-19 pandemic hit the country in March 2020. During those two months, the pandemic took 2 227 lives in Namibia.
The rise in deaths and shortage of coffins at the time forced delays in burials, further overwhelming mortuaries across the country.
Minister of Industrialisation and Trade, Lucia Iipumbu in an interview with Nampa at the time revealed that Namibia spends at least N.dollars 30 million annually to procure coffins from neighbouring South Africa.
She said accelerated efforts were underway to fast-track the manufacturing of coffins locally and the ministry had set up a technical committee, spearheaded by the National Planning Commission, to assess the need and country capacity in terms of coffin manufacturing.
Iipumbu was of the view that the country has the capacity to manufacture its own coffins but is constrained by inadequate sector development. She said the country needed to adopt standards, through the Namibian Standards Institute, to ensure a viable funding scheme, enable a viable raw material sourcing strategy and work on integrating the short or near absent value chain between coffin manufacturers and funeral houses.
The ministry had identified 58 micro, small and medium enterprises (MSMEs) that are able to manufacture and or assemble coffins in Namibia.
The Namibia Press Agency
