Swakopmund — Development Bank of Namibia CEO Martin Inkumbi has said there are immense untapped opportunities in all sectors for Namibians, especially the youth, to explore.
Inkumbi was speaking shortly after the conclusion of the Southern African Development Community (SADC) Development Finance Institutions (DFI) Network CEOs Forum in Swakopmund on Thursday.
The one-day meeting was attended by various SADC CEOs heading financial institutions such as DBN, Agribank, National Housing Enterprise and EIF. These institutions were created to fill the gaps commercial banks are unable to service.
Inkumbi, during the interview, explained that agriculture, poultry and the pharmaceutical sectors are some that are untapped and holds immense opportunities for Namibians.
"We can expand our agricultural production, for local consumption and possibly for export. If you go into specific products, for example poultry. We still consume a lot of poultry products and this shows that opportunities to produce do exist. It just requires proper planning, proper skills," Inkumbi explained.
Hence, he said, forums such as the SADC DFI serves a relevant purpose as it gives DFIs the opportunity to share experiences and draw lessons from other member countries for capacity building.
According to him, this year's focus was more on balancing development, while remaining sustainable was important.
He added that DFIs are not necessarily all about profit but should be able to deliver development impact, by financing projects that are impacting the livelihoods of people and still remain financially sustainable.
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Chief regional operations officer for African Development Bank, Lufeyo Banda, also said DFIs need to invest their finance capital in ways that ensure development mandate takes priority over generating financial returns.
According to him, the use of public money is important as it can help generate more stable, low-cost and long-term forms of finance and reduce pressures to prioritise maximising profit over the DFIs' developmental mandate.
"If DFIs rely heavily on commercial funding, the intuitions may face similar market incentives and pressures as private institutions do, for this reason, ensuring a role for public funding will help protect the development mandate, as this may conflict with purely commercial motives.
DFIs should therefore be careful about how they raise money, as this can have a significant impact on their ability to remain true to their development mandate," he noted.
