Patience Makwele
President Netumbo Nandi-Ndaitwah has challenged corporate Namibia to expand internships and apprenticeships and provide start-up equipment to young graduates as part of a broader push to tackle youth unemployment.
In a speech delivered on her behalf by minister in the presidency Charles Mubita at the inauguration of the Namibia Corporate Social Investment Mukopano in Windhoek on Thursday, Nandi-Ndaitwah said youth unemployment requires a concerted response from the government, businesses and other stakeholders.
“I further encourage the private sector to expand internship and apprenticeship opportunities for our graduates and students. Youth unemployment remains a serious concern and demands a concerted response from all stakeholders,” she said.
She further urged the Mukopano initiative to consider equipment and start-up support for graduates, particularly those emerging from vocational training centres.
Nandi-Ndaitwah said such support would give young people the tools to establish businesses, apply their skills and create sustainable livelihoods.
The call comes as the government targets the repurposing of eight industrial parks into entrepreneurial centres by 2027.
Nandi-Ndaitwah urged stakeholders to develop practical proposals to accelerate the initiative.
She also called for greater private-sector investment in rural communities, saying Namibia’s natural wealth and economic activity must translate into opportunities and improved living conditions for its people.
Nandi-Ndaitwah said Corporate Social Investment (CSI) should, however, go beyond once-off donations and sponsorships and focus on interventions capable of producing lasting change.
“Corporate Social Investment should never become window dressing, a public-relations exercise or an item included in an annual report simply to demonstrate compliance,” she said.
She said the impact of CSI should instead be measured by whether a young person has been trained, a family empowered or a community placed on a firmer path towards self-reliance.
Nandi-Ndaitwah also called for a nationally coordinated framework for CSI to improve coordination, monitoring, accountability and transparency, while aligning private-sector interventions with national development priorities.
She said businesses have an important role to play alongside the government, stressing that the call for greater social investment was not an opposition to profit.
“Profitable and well-managed businesses are indispensable to economic growth, employment creation and national development,” she said.
She urged companies to remain conscious of the communities that contribute to their success and to invest in opportunities that can improve people’s lives.
Nandi-Ndaitwah said CSI should ultimately move away from fragmented interventions towards lasting partnerships that build community capacity and self-reliance.
“Beyond what we earn, own or achieve, whose life has become better because we chose to care?” she asked.
