N$8 million earmarked for informal economy
ThroughtheSouthernAfrican Development Community ( SADC) trade- related facility, the industrial upgrading modernisation plan (IUMP) is expected to inject around N$8 million into Namibia’s informal economy. The funds are to be distributed to 52 beneficiaries by end of October this year.
The Ministry of Industrialisation and Trade says it carried out preliminary work to ensure that the informal economy is safeguarded during Covid-19 pandemic.
According to the trade minister, Lucia Iipumbu, to this end, the ministry has introduced Covid-19 startup grants during the first phase of the lockdown that provided grants of at least N$15 000 to each 200 startups. Iipumbu revealed the significant capital injection for the informal economy when speaking in parliament last week. There she stated that an informal economy is a critical place of local livelihoods as well as a significant component of the overall economy.
She noted that many informal entities and entities whose lifespan is less than five years old received assistance from the ministry. Iipumbu continued that the trade is in another process of providing an additional 500 Small and Medium Enterprises (SME) the same grant of N$15 000 during October.
“The adoption of the national policy will foster an operation that will foster an approach that recognises different levels of the formation such as being traceable through registration with a recognised informal economy association and operating from a normal place,” explained Iipumbu.
Furthermore, the minister confirmed that the work of Namibia Investment Promotion Act is at an advance stage: “The ministry has specified and engaged this task to put into place the modern and clear legal framework for the effective promotion facilitation, management of domestic foreign investment, which will also than culminate into the protection of the informal economy.”
This new investment law will address investment performance requirements and will restrict the economic subsectors to follow investors. In this vein, it will make investor registration compulsory and hence introduce a crucial aspect of investor tracking and management and clear guidelines for investor dispute procedures.