Staff Writer
Three women from Namibia’s coastal region have cooked their way into the grand finale of the 2026 Nedbank Kapana Cook-Off competition, following a fiercely contested preliminary round held in Swakopmund on 1 August.
Asnath Vetamunisa, Laura Egumbo and Meameno Ntinda emerged from a field of 31 contestants to claim their places at the final event, where they will compete for a prize package that includes a fully equipped mobile kapana kitchen valued at N$10,000, and a Bakpro voucher worth N$5,000.
The competition, now in its twelfth year, takes grilled meat sold from informal stands across Namibia’s townships and transforms it into a platform for formal business development, combining culinary excellence with financial literacy training and business coaching designed to help vendors build sustainable enterprises.
This year’s coastal round saw participants first navigate a salsa preparation challenge before presenting their signature kapana dishes to a judging panel drawn from the Namibian Chefs Association, with the three finalists earning the right to represent the region on the national stage.
For Vetamunisa, who has been chasing the top prize since her first attempt in 2021, the victory carried particular weight, as she vowed after years of learning from previous competitions to bring her best game to the final and finally secure the grand prize.
“I would like to thank Nedbank for this platform. I am so happy to be a participant in this competition and will bring my a-game at the final. My first attempt in this competition was 2021, and after the learnings from previous competitions, I vowed to get the grand prize this time,” Vetamunisa.
The Nedbank Kapana Cook-Off sits at a critical intersection of culture and commerce, recognising that kapana vending provides a livelihood for thousands of Namibian families while operating largely outside the formal economy, and the bank has positioned the competition as a direct intervention in a country where youth unemployment stands at 44.4% according to the latest Namibia Statistics Agency data, with projections indicating even higher figures when discouraged jobseekers are included.
Nedbank Namibia communications and public relations manager, Selma Kaulinge, emphasised that the initiative is designed as a business incubator that creates genuine opportunities for grassroots entrepreneurs, providing not just financial support but also the training and exposure necessary to bridge the gap between informal trading and registered, scalable enterprise.
The impact of the competition is already visible in the stories of previous winners, such as past champion Ester Silas, who has credited the programme with elevating her from a vendor into a business owner and entrepreneur in her own right, demonstrating that the support extends far beyond prize money to include bank accounts, business plans, and formal recognition of a trade that has long been overlooked.
Since its inception in 2014, Nedbank Namibia has invested millions of dollars in the Kapana Cook-Off, a commitment the bank frames as a strategic investment in the country’s entrepreneurial base rather than a mere marketing exercise, and the competition now moves north to Oshakati on 29 August, followed by the central round in Windhoek on 19 September, with aspiring vendors able to collect entry forms at any Nedbank Namibia branch nationwide as they seek to follow in the footsteps of this year’s coastal finalists.
