Thirteen small and medium enterprises (SMEs) in the Kavango East Region received financial support last month from the Pitching for Resilience grant scheme programme through the German development agency, GIZ, to cushion the economic impact on business losses.
This is according to Pitch for Resilience grant scheme programme Project Coordinator, Danny Meyer in an interview with Nampa on Monday, who noted that Germany continues support to mitigate the negative impacts of COVID-19 on the Namibian economy in cooperation with the Ministry of Industrialisation and Trade and the Ministry of Finance.
“The funds are being administered through the Pitching for Resilience programme with SME Compete, which has commenced countrywide early July and ends in November 2021.
The programme is supported to stabilise micro, small and medium-sized enterprises in all 14 regions which have suffered severe losses due to a sharp drop in demand, on account of the spread of the virus and regulations put in place.
Meyer said thus far, 77 businesses benefitted from the programme for N.dollars 1.4 million including the 13 businesses from Kavango East.
Meyer said so far the programme has already been completed in the Khomas, Otjozondjupa, Zambezi and Kavango East regions.
“For many of these SMEs the programme helps them keep the lights on, figuratively speaking, so that they can ride the storm, hopefully come October/November business will start picking up again,” he said.
Meyer said many of the small businesses play a big role in their communities by providing a service which “if they were not there, it would be a problem”.
He gave an example of a businessman in Omuthiya who runs the only refrigeration business at the town, stating that without his business the community would be forced to take their fridges for fixing to nearest towns such as Tsumeb or Ondangwa.
He said the programme is extremely important in the midst of so much unemployment before stating that the programme will assist over 400 businesses by time it is over and close to N.dollars 7 million will be granted.
Meyer noted that the programme helps businesses pay for social security, staff salaries, rental, helps to settle debt and helps them fix equipment.
Speaking on behalf of the 13 grant recipients from the Kavango East Region, Martha Johannes said the training tools were very helpful as it made them realise the root problems of their businesses and how to overcome them.
Source: Namibia Press Agency
