Deputy minister of education, innovation, youth, sports, arts and culture Dino Ballotti has thrown down an important challenge to Namibian entrepreneurs: stop thinking of Namibia’s three million people as the limit of your market.
Speaking at the Communications Regulatory Authority of Namibia’s Digital Transformation and Entrepreneurship Breakfast in Oshakati, Ballotti urged entrepreneurs to use technology to pursue customers in Angola, Zambia, Zimbabwe and South Africa.
His point was simple but compelling: “Your target market is not necessarily the person that lives next to you.”
As a Namibian entrepreneur, I agree with the ambition.
But I would add a question that government and business must confront honestly: before we tell Namibian entrepreneurs to look beyond our borders, have we got the basics right at home?
There is a danger in romanticising the idea of “going regional”. Selling to Johannesburg, Lusaka or Luanda is not simply a matter of opening a website, creating a social-media account and waiting for customers to arrive.
Regional expansion requires businesses that are competitive, properly structured, adequately capitalised, technologically capable and able to deliver consistently.
And this is where our conversation needs to become more serious.
Namibia’s small population is undoubtedly a structural limitation for many businesses. A company serving only three million people will eventually encounter a ceiling, particularly in sectors requiring economies of scale.
Ballotti is therefore right to argue that our entrepreneurs must think beyond the domestic market.
Indeed, President Netumbo Nandi-Ndaitwah has made a similar call, urging Namibian businesses to think regionally, continentally and globally and to use opportunities presented by the African Continental Free Trade Area.
But market size is only one side of the equation.
The other is capacity.
Ask the average Namibian small business to produce audited financial statements, meet international quality standards, fulfil a large order on time, provide reliable after-sales service, accept cross-border payments, navigate foreign tax and regulatory requirements, protect customer data and finance several months of working capital.
How many are ready?
That is not an indictment of Namibian entrepreneurs. It is an indictment of an ecosystem that has too often encouraged people to start businesses without sufficiently preparing them to build institutions.
We have become very good at celebrating entrepreneurship. We are less good at building businesses.
There is an important distinction.
A person who sells products successfully from a stall, WhatsApp page or small shop is an entrepreneur.
But building a company capable of competing with an established South African, Zambian or Angolan business requires another level of organisational maturity.
It requires systems.
It requires accounting.
It requires governance.
It requires intellectual property protection.
It requires reliable supply chains.
It requires skilled people.
It requires access to capital.
And above all, it requires customers who are prepared to pay for something that is demonstrably better, cheaper, faster or different.
This is why the fundamental question should not be whether Namibians should look beyond our borders.
Of course they should.
The question is whether Namibia is producing enough businesses that are genuinely ready to cross those borders.
Even the discussions at the CRAN event acknowledged this reality. CRAN chief executive Emilia Nghikembua correctly pointed out that connectivity alone is not enough.
Entrepreneurs must be able to reach customers, receive payments, access digital platforms, protect data and build trust online.
That observation should become the foundation of Namibia’s digital economic strategy.
Technology has dramatically reduced the geographical barriers to doing business. A Namibian software developer can potentially serve a client in Lusaka without opening an office there.
A designer in Windhoek can work for a company in Johannesburg. A Namibian production company can distribute content internationally. A consultant can sell expertise across Africa from a laptop.
But technology does not eliminate the fundamentals of business.
It amplifies them.
A badly managed company with artificial intelligence is still badly managed. A company with an unreliable product does not become competitive simply because it has a sophisticated website.
AI can translate Portuguese; it cannot build a relationship with an Angolan customer. Digital platforms can facilitate payment; they cannot compensate for a company that fails to deliver.
This is why Namibia needs to stop treating entrepreneurship primarily as a youth-employment programme.
Entrepreneurship must also become an industrial and economic development strategy.
The government should be asking: What would it take to produce 100 Namibian companies capable of generating significant revenue outside Namibia?
Then 500.
Then 1 000.
That means radically improving access to growth capital, export finance, trade insurance, market intelligence and business development support. It means helping companies understand neighbouring markets before they enter them.
It means simplifying regulation and making Namibia an attractive base from which companies can operate into the rest of Africa.
It also means confronting an uncomfortable reality: some Namibian entrepreneurs are being encouraged to export before they have learned how to compete domestically.
We need to build companies that can first satisfy demanding Namibian customers. If a business cannot consistently meet deadlines, maintain quality, keep proper financial records or retain customers in Windhoek, it is unlikely to suddenly become a continental champion in Johannesburg or Luanda.
There is, however, another side to this argument.
We must not wait until every Namibian business is perfect before encouraging international expansion.
That day will never come.
Businesses learn by competing. They become better because markets force them to become better. Regional expansion itself can therefore be an important mechanism for upgrading Namibian companies.
The answer is not to choose between “fixing Namibia” and “going regional”.
We must do both.
Ballotti’s challenge should therefore be welcomed, but it should also be expanded. The government should not merely tell entrepreneurs to look beyond Namibia. It should help create entrepreneurs and companies capable of surviving once they get there.
Our three million people should be our launchpad, not our prison.
Namibia has advantages that we sometimes underestimate: political stability, a strategic Atlantic coastline, the Port of Walvis Bay, proximity to major Southern African markets, a growing digital economy and a young generation increasingly comfortable with technology.
But advantages are not competitiveness.
Competitiveness must be built.
The real test of Ballotti’s message will not be how many entrepreneurs announce that they want to expand into Angola or South Africa.
It will be whether, five or ten years from now, we can point to a meaningful number of Namibian companies earning substantial foreign revenue, employing Namibians and competing successfully across Africa.
So yes, deputy minister, let us look beyond our borders.
But let us also look in the mirror.
Before Namibia can build companies for Africa, we must build the foundations that allow those companies to grow.
Think globally. Think continentally. But first, build properly.
