Development agencies solidify agreement

The Development Bank of Namibia (DBN) and the Botswana’s Citizen Entrepreneurial Development Agency (CEDA) last week signed a five-year agreement of cooperation that will see the two agencies benefit both by sharing knowledge, insights and best practices.
Development Bank of Namibia Chief Executive Officer, Martin Inkumbi said the Memorandum of Understanding would assist both institutions in building capacity through sharing of knowledge and mutual experience.
Inkumbi said that CEDA’s mandate corresponds with the mandate of DBN and that sharing of knowledge and experience would strengthen the capacity of both institutions.
CEDA was established by the Government of Botswana in 2001 to provide financial and technical support for business development with a view to promote viable and sustainable citizen-owned business enterprises. It also offers funding for capital expenditure, stock or working capital in new and existing business ventures.

Inkumbi said, “given the monumental development challenges our continent faces, the responsibility and expectations on development finance institutions to improve the socio-economic conditions of our people are high. Therefore, as development finance institutions (DFIs), they will continue to develop their operations and enhance their insights on best practices.”
He said that as the field is typically non-competitive, driven by national or regional mandates, it is possible to share information.
“Although DFIs develop their own operational models, based on their capacity and footprints, sharing of insights is particularly important, as these are hard won, take time to develop and can have a substantial impact on development,” he added.
He said that similarities between the economic development of Namibia and Botswana, as well as structural similarities between the national economies, make CEDA a particularly valued partner. Talking about the similarities, he said that both Namibia and Botswana have a high degree of reliance on primary and tertiary sectors of their respective economies. However, he noted that Botswana had made strides in manufacturing, and that DBN hoped to draw on CEDA’s experience of finance in this field. He also mentioned that SADC integration made it imperative that economies within the region develop apace, and that sharing of development experience would foster this directly.