By Adolf Kaure.
Walvis Bay entrepreneurs recently shared how they plan to use innovation in their businesses to make a difference in the community.
This was during an engagement of the National Commission for Research on Science and Technology (NCRST) with Walvis Bay business owners to share information on opportunities that can benefit MSM enterprises.
One of the participants of the session, Penny Martin, who has aspirations of opening a rehabilitation centre for drug addicts, said that she came up with several innovative business ideas to improve the socio-economic situation in Walvis Bay.
“I got a lot of ideas while the presenters were speaking. In total five to eight ideas sprang into my head. One of my ideas has to do with fish processing.”
“Walvis Bay is a town where fishing is one of the main sources of income. By improvising my ideas, I can use what I learnt here to fight poverty in Walvis Bay,” Martin said.
One of the science commission’s programmes that entrepreneurs can take part in is the National Innovation Challenge programme which gives entrepreneurs an opportunity to pitch innovative projects to win grants to improve their respective businesses.
The science commission’s Senior Technologist in the innovation and industrial department, Charles Hangara said that having the information sessions in different regions allows more entrepreneurs to be capacitated.
“The aim of conducting this session is to share the information to the stakeholders because we realize that whenever we advertise for the NCRST innovation support programmes, we hardly get the numbers that we need because we get very few applications.”
“So, we decided to go out there to the regions and share this information with the programmes that we run so that we can sensitize the people to apply the next time and then we get the numbers that we need rather than just getting the numbers from Windhoek,” said Hangara.
Apart from Walvis Bay, the sessions were also held in different towns of the Erongo Region like Swakopmund, Arandis and Karibib.
Similar sessions will take place in other regions of Namibia, before applications open for the National Innovation Challenge. Winners of the programme are given a grant to invest in their businesses.
