“Entrepreneurs frequently complain that the Chamber isn’t doing enough for Walvis Bay SMEs so this year much of our work has focused on helping owners of small firms develop skills and access markets” says Anne Narburgh, office manager of the Walvis Bay branch of Namibia Chamber of Commerce and Industry (NCCI). “We have found a willing and able partner in the consultancy firm, SMEs Compete”, adds Narburgh.
SMEs Compete is a Windhoek based consultancy firms with a business focus on helping Namibia’s small and medium enterprises (SME) sector grow. The firm assists Namibian SMEs grow business and create employment.
Business capacity building assistance that SMEs Compete provides comes in various forms, including training programmes to help entrepreneurs hone their personal skills and develop employees of their businesses too. Additionally the firm provides ongoing business mentoring under a public private partnership (PPP) programme jointly funded by First National Bank (FNB) and the German development service, Deutscher Entwicklungsdienst (DED). Other support services provid-ed to SME clients by SMEs Compete includes facilitation of market access opportunities.
During the fist half of 2007 the Walvis Bay branch of NCCI, in partnership with SMEs Compete has presented several training courses and workshop in the port town. More are planned for the remainder of the year. Another facet of service support planned, that local small firms should find attractive, relates to market access. In this connection the first ever Walvis Bay SME Expo is scheduled to take place later this month on the 27th and 28th July.
“It is anticipated that more than 40 SMEs will showcase their goods and services at the event of which about half will be from outside the port town, mainly from Windhoek”, says SMEs Compete director, Danny Meyer. 
Meyer says that experience gained from holding similar SME Expos in Windhoek and Rosh Pinah has shown that the infusion of SME exhibitors from outside the town where the event is actually taking place holds several advantages. “Not only does it provide business linkage opportunities for the exhibitors, create sales opportunities and opens new markets, but adding a competitive element leads to product and service improvements”, says Meyer, adding “This in turn helps build the country’s industrial base.”
Although the firm services SMEs around Namibia it is currently based in Windhoek but plans to establish a presence in northern Namibia in October and in January 2008 in Walvis Bay. This development should be music to the ears of local entrepreneurs who own small businesses.

Theo Ickua, owner of Rosh Pinah’s first nursery on his stand -
photo: Danny Meyer