Namibian VP woos Ugandan business community
Jan 20, 2024
Netumbo said Namibia, on top of warm diplomatic ties with Uganda, is looking forward to strengthening commercial diplomacy with Uganda.
Uganda's Honorary Consul to Namibia Godfrey Kirumira second left welcoming the Namibian delegates. (Photos by Joseph Mutebi)
Nelson Kiva
Journalist @New Vision
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Namibia Vice-President Dr Nangolo Mbumba has called on Ugandan business personalities to take up investment opportunities in his country.
Mbumba made the call while addressing a cross-section of city business personalities at a dinner hosted by the Honorary Consul of Namibia, Godfrey Kirumira.
The dinner was in honour of the vice president and his delegation at his Buziga-based home in Kampala on Thursday.
“I do not know why I have been waiting to come to Uganda for such a long time. Today, I am here to meet the beautiful people of Uganda. Many communities in Namibia will claim that they came from a land full of lakes and waters and they claim we came from here,” he said.
Mbumba was leading a delegation of 35 Namibian officials at the Non-Aligned Movement (NAM) and the G77+China summits ongoing at the Munyonyo Convention Centre in Kampala.
“It is truly wonderful that we Africans are beginning to appreciate other African people and other African countries. We have to learn how to co-operate how to do business together, how to exploit our mineral resources together, how to process them at home before we send them to other people,” he said.
He added: “If we don’t unite, other countries and other regions and other continents are moving very fast in a new direction”.
Mbumba used the occasion to introduce the incoming Namibian President and the country’s current deputy prime minister and international relations and cooperation minister, Netumbo Nandi-Ndaitwah, and argued Ugandans and other Africans to support her.
Netumbo said Namibia, on top of warm diplomatic ties with Uganda, is looking forward to strengthening commercial diplomacy with Uganda.
She emphasised that it was the reason that pushed Namibia to appoint the renowned businessman in Uganda, Kirumira as their Honorary Consul in the country to facilitate the business interests of both countries.
“I'm sure that our Honorary Consul is already in touch with the businessmen in Uganda and Namibia to discuss business opportunities. I am well informed that a team of business people from Uganda will be travelling to Namibia next month to grow collaboration with their counterparts. This will benefit the two friendly countries,” she said.
Netumbo will take over as the next President of Namibia in November of this year.
Kirumira used the occasion to thank the Vice President for the honour of visiting his home and pledged commitment to deliver to the expectations.
“It is my honour to invite you today to my humble home. I want to inform you that the President of Namibia asked Honorary Consuls to mobilise many business people to go and invest in Namibia. I want to bring to your attention that I have managed to execute that assignment with diligence and a few business colleagues invited here today are part of the bigger business community in Uganda gearing up for investment in Namibia. If it wasn’t for the NAM conference and the G77 summit we were supposed to have the biggest tour around Namibia this January, but we have postponed it for February or early March 2024,” he said.
He informed him that he had been sending many business people to Namibia and that many had returned with a good attitude towards investing in Namibia.
Hamis Kiggundu, among other businessmen who expressed interest in investing in Namibia, informed the Vice-President that what is undermining Africa’s growth is the gap in reasoning between success and failure.
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