DBN COVID-19 relief loan safeguards jobs in hard-hit tourism sector
A Development Bank of Namibia (DBN) COVID-19 business relief loan managed to help preserve approximately 950 jobs, an executive announced Monday.
The bank provided finance of around N$53 million to pay salaries of tourism and hospitality employees of The Gondwana Collection, DBN Executive for Marketing and Corporate Communication, Jerome Mutumba said in a statement.
The employees are distributed among 28 accommodation establishments and companies that make up the group.
Mutumba expressed admiration for how the group and its staff operated as a collective.
“Cuts to income have preserved employment and income thus far, but none of this would have been possible without the individual commitment to the shared interests of the group,” he said.
According to Mutumba, although recovery of the local tourism and hospitality sector was expected in 2021, this did not materialize due to the continued impact of COVID-19 globally and especially the emergence of the Omicron COVID-19 variant, and the subsequent red listing of Namibia and other countries in southern Africa.
“The sector now hopes that on the back of very positive current and especially future bookings the sector will begin to recover in 2022,” he added.
Meanwhile, Mutumba said the investments that the bank is making in tourism recognize its proven contribution to the Namibian economy but, more importantly, the need to preserve capacity for the future.
DBN’s COVID-19 Business Relief Loan is supported by capitalization from the German development financing entity, the Kreditanstallt fuer Wiederaufbau.
