Blue Bank financial boost to support the countrywide national internship programme
Standard Bank Namibia last week said that they joined hands with digital enabler MTC Namibia with a N$200,000 support contribution to the Namibia National Internship Programme (NNIP).
Last year, MTC nationalized the NNIP and put out a standing call urging corporates, both public and private, to join hands in upscaling the programme into a national vehicle for internships.
The NNIP is an intervention driven specifically to assist institutions of high learning in finding Work Integrated Learning opportunities for students – which is a pre-requisite in completing most undergraduate programmes, the bank’s corporate affairs department said.
“We thank and applaud Standard Bank Namibia for becoming the first corporate/bank to extend its corporate goodwill to this national internship programme. Presently, MTC and the Office of the Prime Minister each commit N$2 million per annum to the programme,” said Tim Ekandjo, MTC’s chief human capital, corporate affairs, and marketing officer.
He, however, said that through smart partnerships, they earmarked to increase this amount to N$14 million – which will drastically help upscale the programme’s intake capacity from 160 to 1600 students per annum
“In this regard, we have thus far identified at least 53 corporates and call for each to pledge a minimum of N$200,000 to the course. Just as Standard Bank did,” added Ekandjo.
Meanwhile, the Head of Brand and Marketing at Standard Bank, Magreth Mengo, emphasized that Standard Bank aims to invest in the future of the Namibian youth and give endless opportunities to the “very people who are the backbone of our organization’s success.”
“True to our brand purpose, Namibia is our home, and we drive her growth,” Mengo said, adding that graduates and interns are the future employees of corporate Namibia and an ‘investment in them is an investment in ourselves’, and the Namibian economy.
She said they hope the contribution is a symbol of hope to students in search of opportunities. “Furthermore, we want to encourage other corporate entities to see the value in an initiative such as this. With our involvement, we want to inject the ‘It Can Be spirit’ into the youth and prove to them through action that their dreams are attainable,” explained Mengo.
Annually, the country is reported to have over 48,000 students nationally who are faced with a dire need of internships to graduate, added the bank’s corporate affairs department.
