Team Namibia Q & A

What have been the achievements of Team Namibia since 2004 and what are its current challenges?

Our greatest challenge lies with keeping the dollar at home and to do this, we need everyone to feel about Namibia the way we feel. Each of us if here for a particular reason and that reason is what needs to inspire us to Be Namibian – Buy Namibian and secure for our children, a real and tangible future. On a micro level, Team will endeavour to bring perceptible benefits to our service provider-members with efforts already underway and to be made public when completed. In terms of achievements, there have been so many over the past five years but in my view, having the support of the Founding Father as a Patron to the team in 2004 already would count as the first. By 2005 we secured the membership of the agricultural sector by way of the Agronomic Board and in 2006, we launched the Goodwill Ambassador’s Club with members like Sydney Martin, Nianell, Gazza, Stefan Ludik and others. In 2007 we began a merchandising programme for optimum shelf space for our members and by 2008, we launched the Team Namibia directory which has proved to be very popular with members, which data base has kept on growing. We currently have 512 members of which around 300 are agricultural producers. During the years we secured both MTI and NSI board membership for Team and in closing last year, we secured shelf space in Pick ‘n Pay for SME members. Marketing drives including the Youth Campaign are ongoing.

What activities will Team Namibia embark on going into the future?

As an immediate concern, our focus for this year would be to increase the visibility of the logo across all market sectors and to convince all consumers that Team Namibia products are of the highest quality. Team Namibia, by its every essence, is an emotional issue, one of the heart, for it stems from patriotism and a passion for country, flag, borders and currency. This is an element that will be tackled during this year with a very special and focused campaign, which I do not want to make public just yet. Going into the future, our goals include marketing our members’ products as well as our country on a regional and eventually, international level.

Are concepts like Team Namibia still relevant today, when the world is rapidly globalizing?

More so than ever before! The term ‘colonial’ is common to all Namibians while the term ‘terrorism’ is common to the world. In a place where the global community is becoming smaller and smaller by the day, we as Namibians, in a small country with a small manufacturing industry and very little industrialization, are threatened by the powers that be. It is what I would refer to as economic terrorism or neo-colonialism. We are vulnerable to large conglomerates and multi-national corporations who, many from South Africa, are taking over economies one by one, emerging into Africa from the South. There is also great
international interest in Namibia for its natural resources and virtually untapped economy so it is even more important to protect what is ours, to promote what we have and can do and to make sure that each person who turns consumer for whatever product or service they need, procure it locally and again, keep the dollar in the country. Besides all of that, who wants to be a number only when we can all be Namibian?

Why is the concept of Team Namibia important?

Let us say there is a farmer. That farmer owns one piece of land, fully sustainable for whatever he is farming. He has four sons. Only one will inherit the farm after the farmer’s death. That leaves three children that have to eke out their own future starting from zero. The farmer should have ensure that three more farms were procured during his productive years or at least, have enough land for all four to make a living on. If we treat our economy in this way, there is no growth, no snowball effect. We can only keep our economy safe and provide a tomorrow for our children if we keep the dollar at home. Team Namibia is that concept, that initiative.