Donald Matthys

OMDis Town Transform Agency, Uconomy Namibia and Nedbank Namibia this week announced a collaboration that will boost the SME development in the town of Oranjemund.

Tony Bessinger, General Manager of OMDis said the collaboration will unquestionably usher in a new era for both the town and the rest of Namibia in supporting SME development.

“OMDis has been established to transform our town and accelerate its economic diversification, such that it evolves into a vibrant centre for enterprises and provide further impetus for businesses operating in Oranjemund,” said Bessinger.

Scha van Niekerk from Uconomy Namibia they have the perfect model to support the OMDis vision for Oranjemund.

“We have extensive experience in building viable enterprises within communities, and look forward to embedding these tried and tested elements of our programme in the town. We have a three-layered approach, which ultimately enables young talent to enter the world of work, support the SME sector and build an ecosystem with the specific aim of driving an integrated socio-economic development platform within the areas of our operations,” van Niekerk added.

According to Nedbank Namibia’s Managing Director, Martha Murorua, the multi-faceted collaboration has been months in the making. She noted that while the collaboration is seen as a pilot project, it creates a blueprint that can ultimately be scaled throughout Namibia.”

The project is set to kick off immediately.

Article sourced from Namibia Economist

ART CAN TRANSFORM Project kicks off at Ambrosius Amutenya Primary School (AAPS) in Oranjemund.

By Charne Witbooi

Windhoek based artist Nicky Marais and Oranjemund based artist Aurelia Sieberhagen was contracted by OMDis to coordinate a school mural project.

On the 10th of August 2021, a group of 15 Grade 7 learners were selected by their teachers to be part of this project. These enthusiastic learners are looking forward in developing new art skills and are prepared to work after school including weekends to create an exciting mural painting for their school.

“Building Futures Together” is the project theme with 3 stages:

Stage 1: The artists took learners and teachers through a process of conceptualization of the theme of the project. Learners were led through the process of developing images and ideas regarding the transformation of Oranjemund through brainstorming.

Stage 2: Ideas and images were collected and selected for inclusion in the mural as a team. Drawing and designing took place in the classroom over a period of a few days. The learners, teachers and artists worked together to create images which together are compositionally unified with clear messages and inclusive imagery in terms of the town demographic.

Stage 3: The wall was prepared and the design was drawn onto the wall by the artists. Now the artists and learners are painting the mural. The final product will be presented to the school and the community by the learners who explain the imagery and its meaning to the concept.

It has been an interesting process to engage with the learners about the future they want for the town. Concepts included a SME hub, sports academy, and agriculture. These concepts are now coming alive on their wall, and will forever serve as a reminder of what the town needs to develop towards.

OMDis open up SMEs Centre on their premises.

By Meameno Vatileni

On Thursday, 19 August 2021, OMDis officially opened up the new SMEs Centre in Oranjemund, located at the OMDis Offices at 19-7th Avenue.

In partnership with SMEs Compete alongside other stakeholders, we have managed to facilitate Business Skills Development training and resource development for business owners within Oranjemund over the period of June 2020 up to date. We have managed to positively impact; 1) Employment Creation, 2) Business Growth, 3) Increased Competitiveness, 4) Status Regularisation & Compliance with obligations, 5) Business Skills Enhancement and acting upon or use of new skills and 6) Business Linkage opportunities.

With the opening of the new OMDis SMEs Centre, we aim to increase our support and development impact to increase by continuing to provide and deliver more in-depth business support to Oranjemund based SMEs seeking to expand. The centre will also be giving business owners a voice to effectively share their challenges through the OMDis Business Forum.

Moving forward the OMDis SMEs Centre will develop strong relationships with partners in the Business Development sector to offer services via their business networks.

We believe that business owners who devote and dedicate their time and efforts to working with the SMEs Centre will surely underline their success from partnerships, engagement and inclusion.

Working together will make both OMDis and Oranjemund SMEs tangible and successful examples of providing effective business support services that will ultimately lead us to reach our objective of creating sustainable businesses within Oranjemund.

We look forward to engaging with all Oranjemund SMEs to develop their businesses to their fullest potential.

For more information about the OMDis SMEs Centre, please do not hesitate to contact us or visit our offices.

OMDis Town Transform Agency is pleased to have donated benches for the comfort of our community.

Three wooden picnic benches have been built by a local carpenter as part of the support local businesses initiative. East Gate is a shopping complex for small micro-entrepreneurs and has recently seen a rise of activity with new businesses establishing there.
The benches were placed in the courtyard and fill a need for the area, allowing families and people like joggers, shoppers, children and adults to enjoy a rest.
More benches are soon to be installed in various areas across Oranjemund.

On the 10th of August a team of town planners, architects and engineers from the AIJ consortium had an inception meeting with OMDis as part of a property development feasibility study for Oranjemund. This exciting project will see property development concepts presented to develop three key assets: the Golf club, the yacht club and the bowling club.

Elizabeth Joseph
Mara Beukes, the principal of Ambrosius Amutenya Primary School in Oranjemund, says their school prides itself on its school garden.

The project, titled Agricultural Project Pamwe, started five years ago and the school has since been known as the ‘green school’.

This year the project put up a greenhouse and areas with nets where the pupils are set to plant, harvest, and work on weekly as part of their agricultural curriculum.

“We plant tomatoes, cucumbers, carrots, spinach, cauliflower, onions, and beets. The school project sells its produce to teachers and the community and also uses the rest of what’s left in our school’s nutrition scheme,” Beukes says.

The project receives support from Namdeb or OMDis and the parents also support them a great deal. It aims to teach the learners about food supply and entrepreneurial skills through their labour in the garden.

Article sourced from My Zone

SMEs Compete – Moving Beyond Your Local Market Programme 24 – 27 May 2021

By Meameno Vatileni

The Programme which was aimed to broaden markets for local entrepreneurs beyond their domestic market of Oranjemund kicked off on 24 May 2021. Oranjemund Entrepreneurs were trained to move out of their comfort zone by garnering new customers outside of Oranjemund and expanding their customer base to help them grow their businesses.

On 25 May 2021, SMEs Compete & OMDis visited participants business premises in Oranjemund to coach them on final preparation on a one-on-one basis.

On 26 May 2021 Oranjemund SMEs travelled to Rosh Pinah for a business linkage event. Here businesses had the opportunity to introduce their businesses to the Rosh Pinah community and Rosh Pinah SMEs in the form of a mini expo.

A short debrief was held on 27 May 2021 at the Sperrgebiet Conference Hall to discuss the outcome of the Programme and areas on how SMEs can develop their skills in order to achieve stretching out of their local business environments successfully.

OMDis would like to extend their gratitude to SMEs Compete, RoshKor and OBIB Training Centre for facilitating this Innovative programme.

Presenters SMEs Compete and OMDis Town Transform Agency hosted an exciting Pitch for Business Funding (P4BF) event which took place from the 22 – 26 March 2021.

The aim for this programme is to support and develop new and existing SMEs within Oranjemund. This specific programme will help businesses attain grants, business loans and investors.

Ambitious entrepreneurs were eager and ready to take part in the 3-day business development skills training, focusing mainly on how to sell their idea to a potential funder. Twenty-three participants got the chance to present their ideas on the 4th day.

Serving on the judging panel from the business community were Mr. Angelo Helmuth (Entrepreneur and judges panel chairman), Ms. Nangula Kapewangolo (Bank Windhoek Oranjemund), Ms. Meameno Vatileni (OMDis Town Transformation Agency), Ms. Antonia Tooispan (First National Bank – Oranjemund) and Ms. Yvonne Hasheela (Namdeb – Allied Services). The participants’ ideas were measured by viability, sustainability and business model. Of the twenty-three finalist, 10 participants in P4BF Oranjemund secured funding (5x start-up and 5x scaling category), though the panel agreed that all twenty-three finalists had something unique to offer. This demonstrated that entrepreneurship can thrive in Oranjemund.

The pitching ended with OMDis hosting a business breakfast which took place on 27 March 2021 at the Sperrgebiet Conference room. All participants were invited to attend and gain some inspiration from Beatha Shitemba who is the owner and founder of Nels Babies Company, Beatha spoke about her entrepreneurship journey, and the audience learned a lot from here.

We thank all the participants, judges, SMEs Compete and Beatha Shitemba for taking part in this exciting event. Congratulations to the winners!

Explorer Kate Leeming sets out to make the first bicycle journey down Namibia’s Skeleton Coast, where the Namib Desert meets the Atlantic Ocean. Kate’s thousand-mile journey sees her enduring some of the most inhospitable conditions on the planet, in one of Africa’s most remote and spectacular locations. She ends her journey in Oranjemund, where her story lingers for a while on this unique town and what it offers. The series is now showing on Outside TV, its market is mainly USA and Australia. Sponsored by OMDis.

Watch Episode 1 Here 

Oranjemund – Namibia’s best-kept secret: https://youtu.be/reMm0Aos290

By Charne Witbooi

OMDis hosted their first Farmers Market on the 27 th of February 2021 in Oranjemund. The aim is to promote and market the OMDis Nursery pilot project developing agriculture as a large industry, supported be the development of supporting SMEs.

With fine summer weather we welcomed the community to join in on Vision 2030.
Oranjemund’s agricultural background goes back many years, and brings nostalgic memories to those who have been living in town since the 1950’s.

The market took place at the OMD2030 Hub where different SMEs stalls where ready to make a sale for their own income.

These stalls included Arts & Crafts, Oshiwambo traditional foods, vegetables, different plants types, bakery foods, sweet treats and fresh fish all the way from Lüderitz.

Mr Ettienne De Jager, the agriculture manager of the OMDis nursery, had a blast creating a farm environment. Children enjoyed the lively chickens and rabbits on show while others look fashionable and relaxed on the day whilst enjoying the photo booth with our new team player ‘Toney’ the scarecrow.

The day ended with a comical auction where the remaining vegetables and plants was sold off to the highest bidder.

We would like to thank O-FM 91.00 for kick starting the event with entertainment, and all other stakeholders who have contributed to the success of the OMDis Farmers market.

Dates of the next Farmers’ market will be available soon.