Three years and counting

tjil catches up with Nimms restaurant owner on how much they have grown since their opening.
June Shimuoshili
Nimms restaurant is the only restaurant in Namibia that gives one a 360-degree view of the city whilst having glorious international food served with Namibian hospitality. Opened three years ago, tjil talks to Klaivert Mwandingi on the restaurants' three biggest achievements thus far.

The National Independence Memorial Museum restaurant (Nimms) is an Afropean restaurant. It is to serve both locals and international tourists. Klaivert Mwandingi says he didn't think they would make it to three years and he is grateful given the fact that it was funded with savings.

“It has been a humble struggle. I learned a lot including the fact that one should not go into business with the aim of getting rich overnight but rather go into business that drives and motivates you. Your only expectations after closing each night is to reopen the following day,” Mwandingi said. One of the achievements Nimms managed to make is to capture a diverse clientele including government ministries and offices. Today Nimms hosts majority of the events within the ministry including the President's Christmas Lunch as of last year.

Nimms has also managed to draw a large number of tourists to the museum since they opened their doors. One of the ways they achieve this is by presenting tourists with local and international cuisine.

“The vision is to at least have one dish from each southern African country. One of the challenges is getting Namibian traditional food because majority of it is seasonal. We are currently serving Setswana, Oshiwambo, Zambezi dishes and from time to time we bring in specials… like we had a Herero breakfast Oruhere,” said Mwandingi.

Mwandingi says to be on par with other restaurants, Nimms took part in the National Heritage Week Association restaurant competition run by the Namibia Museums Association and they managed to walk away with first prize with Xwama coming in second. Other achievements include Nimms being able to employ 18 with 70% of them permanent.

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Namibian Sun 2024-05-18

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Nam 2.22 SAME | Oryx Properties Ltd 12.1 UP 1.70% | Paratus Namibia Holdings 11.99 SAME | SBN Holdings 8.45 SAME | Trustco Group Holdings Ltd 0.48 SAME | B2Gold Corporation 47.34 DOWN 1.50% | Local Index closed 677.62 UP 0.12% | Overall Index closed 1534.6 DOWN 0.05% | Osino Resources Corp 19.47 DOWN 2.41% | Commodities: Gold US$ 2 414.72/OZ UP +1.55% | Copper US$ 5.04/lb UP +4.12% | Zinc US$ 3 059.30/T UP 0.11% | Brent Crude Oil US$ 84.28/BBP UP +0.60% | Platinum US$ 1 084.88/OZ UP +2.19%