Germany has reiterated its support for Namibia’s small and medium enterprise (SME) sector. In his opening remarks at the Windhoek launch of a new training series for woodworking SMEs last Friday, Stefan Sckell, the counsellor for development co-operation at the German embassy in Windhoek, said his government recognises the pivotal role small firms play in the economic development of Namibia.

This is why it supports initiatives that focus on honing the technical and business skills of small Namibian owned firms, he said adding that Germany considers the new business skills capacity building intervention as a practical approach towards helping local entrepreneurs grow business, create employment and become part of the country’s mainstream economy.

Run once a week over six-days, the presentation of Improve Your Business spans a period of six weeks. It has been developed by SMEs Compete with the support of the German development service, Deutscher Entwicklungsdienst (DED) and the only local banking group listed on the Namibia Stock Exchange (NSX), First National Bank (FNB). DED and FNB are supporting SMEs Compete under a public private partnership (PPP) programme that helps small firms grow business and improve skills and service delivery. An expert from DED, Malte Beierdoerffer, who is in Namibia for six months to lend support to SMEs Compete’s woodworking sector SMEs, is facilitating the Improve Your Business series.

Adopting a focus industry approach that has proven to yield impressive results, the Improve Your Business series was specifically designed by SMEs Compete to cater for small woodworking and joinery firms. Its holistic approach is directed at improving the capacity and efficiency, from both an administration and production angle, of SMEs. SMEs Compete’s Danny Meyer says up to 20 woodworking sector SMEs from around the country are set to benefit from the initiative. Presented for SMEs from Windhoek and surrounding towns in February and March the next presentation location is Ongwediva where Improve Your Business will be run in April. Meyer adds that the programme has been specifically designed in a manner that makes it easily adaptable to the needs of other sectors like for example garment production and leather goods manufacturing.