Jo-MarÉ Duddy
30 November 2011
NAMIBIA is a “boutique” country for investors, Trade and Industry Minister Hage Geingob said yesterday as he invited the international business community to join the country in its “second struggle” of economic emancipation.
“You can’t redistribute poverty,” Geingob said at the Namibia International Investment Forum, urging investors to take Government’s hand in narrowing the gap between the haves and the have-nots.
“You have a social responsibility,” Geingob said.
“Don’t just try and make profit and run. You’ll make enough money to take home, don’t be scared,” he said.
Sharing the platform with Geingob, Clement Isikwe, chief executive officer of the United Bank of Africa in Mozambique, said this is the essence of afri-capitalism.
Investors should look at the challenges facing African countries and identify investment opportunities from it. However, this should be done within the African “culture of ensuring that people around us should also benefit”.
Support governments through foundations, he suggested. “Government can’t do everything.”
Isikwe also referred to the saying that money goes where money is welcomed.
“In Namibia money will always be welcome,” Isikwe said.
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