Buying land, one dollar at a time

The SME Bank of Namibia has come out in support of the Land-A-Dollar campaign to collect small amounts of cash from consumers for the purpose of establishing a land fund to assist the government’s ambitious urban land servicing programme.

Land-A-Dollar is an initiative of the Students Representative Council of the University of Namibia and is run as a not-for-profit project. “The Land- A-Dollar campaign is a charitable, non-profit and solidarity establishment, with the aim of requesting a dollar to support the government’s land plan” SME Bank said when they announced their support for the project.
“SME Bank is the first bank to commit to the Land-A-Dollar objectives which involve placing a hundred drums or money bags, well-sealed, branded and secured across the country, at universities, shopping malls, banks and supermarkets where individuals can drop a dollar from their change into the drums.”
“The campaign runs until 14 October 2015. The drums will be collected under strict security and auditors from PWC will establish the total revenue collected. We decided to join this noble initiative because we are a Namibian bank, owned by the Namibian government and this is a historic initiative of President Hage Geingob which requires the support of all patriotic Namibians. The campaign will definitely be notable in its contribution to the land servicing programme.”
“All SME Bank branches will have the drums including our new Ongwediva branch. The fact that we are the bank that introduced the zero cash deposit fee on transactions has enabled us to connect with the Namibian community at large and at a strategic level. We are certain that the campaign will be received well” said Beatrice Kahunda, Chairperson of the Bank ‘s Marketing Committee.
Established in 2012, SME Bank’s mandate is to grow and develop Small and Medium Enterprises. The SME Bank said it now has a client base of over 10,000. The bank was the first to offer clients zero cash deposit fee.