Backyards no place for business – president

Extending land at Swakopmund and Walvis Bay so that people can build houses is on the table for discussion, President Netumbo Nandi-Ndaitwah says.She also wants an area set aside where small businesses can operate so that entrepreneurs no longer have to run their businesses from other people’s backyards.Land dominated the questions at Friday evening’s town hall meeting in Mondesa, Swakopmund. Organisers eventually asked residents to stop raising the issue.The president said both the Swakopmund and Walvis Bay municipalities raised the need for land when she engaged them. The matter will be discussed with the Erongo governor’s office and the regional council, she said.“Then the municipality has to improve when it comes to land allocation. And this is not even for housing,” she said. “The business people, they don’t want to do business in other people’s backyards.”She said the governor, the regional council and the municipalities should “identify one area to be a business area”, where small businesses would have a safe, designated place to operate.Vast majority rentA resident told the president that about 80% of Swakopmund residents rent. She said a single backyard flat costs about N$6 000 a month and a double about N$13 000, and that the municipality tells applicants there is a queue of 20 000.“We need serviced or unserviced land,” she said.A youth leader said young people do not want to run businesses from backyards.“We want our own land where we can put industry, where we can put our resources,” the youth leader said.Namibian Sun has previously reported on the Swakopmund Rent Payers Movement, which campaigns for affordable land. Its chairperson, Mabasen /Narib, said working-class residents find it almost impossible to secure affordable land, and the movement has called for land auctions reserved for first-time buyers.

Backyards no place for business – president

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Namibian Sun 2026-11-10

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Backyards no place for business – president

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Namibian Sun 2026-11-10

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