Youth Council guarantees seed capital
Taking care of financing for SMEs through a partnership with the National Youth Council, is Bank Windhoek’s Mbo Luvindao.
Bank Windhoek announced earlier this month, it has finalised an agreement with the National Youth Council to extend small loans to start-ups for further expansion on condition that the Council must guarantee a part of the principal.
The bank said it has extended its assistance to the National Youth Council to provide business expansion loans to young people in business. “Bank Windhoek and the Youth Council embarked on a strategic partnership that allows Small and Medium Enterprises owned by youth between the age of 18 and 35, to acquire capital for business expansion.”
The partnership allows these SMEs to acquire small bank loans between N$1000 and N$6000 repayable over a period of 24 months. The Youth Council guarantees 60% of the loan amount, while the borrower contributes 10% collateral in the form of an up front deposit.
This programme is currently available to the youth in all regions.
The bank explained it has a longstanding partnership with the Youth Council through its Credit for Youth in Business programme, which was launched in November 2008. This is a loan guarantee programme to support youth-owned businesses without adequate collateral, to help them access affordable financing and mentoring support. The Branch Manager of Bank Windhoek’s ESME Branch, Mbo Luvindao said: “Bank Windhoek is cognisant of the fact that unemployment among the Namibian youth is high, hence our strong and continued support for youth empowerment initiatives with the National Youth Council. Bank Windhoek also encourages the youth, through the bank’s BizzKids competition to venture into business and take calculated business risk from a young age and come up with business ideas to create jobs and reduce the employment levels amongst the youth.”
“Bank Windhoek has been a major role player in the development of the SME sector and our specialised ESME Branch has been financing small and medium enterprises since its establishment in 2000” he said.
