YOUNG Windhoek entrepreneur Martin Nankala, a director of Cross Branding Investments, will be hosting a second annual Business Namibia Summit at the Hilton Hotel in Windhoek on 4 June.
Nankala says the event will give Namibians a platform to learn about financial literacy from prominent people and leaders in the financial sector.
“The event to be presented by Windhoek celebrity Maria Nepembe will start at 16h30, and four prominent people have been lined up to share their knowledge with other Namibians,” he said on Wednesday.
“These are economist Mally Likukela, the managing director of Twilight Capital; Twapewa Kadhikwa, the director of Kadhikwa Group of Companies who has a chicken business and also runs the well-known Xwama Traditional Restaurant in Wanaheda; Martin Inkumbi, the chief executive officer of the Development Bank of Namibia; and Indileni Nanghonga, a senior research and development officer at Agribank.
“Nanghonga will be able to share knowledge about the agricultural sector and farming finance to enhance food security on the country,” said Nankala.
He said the event is for anybody with a business or who is aspiring to start one, or those interested in financial matters or the economy.
“Likukela is an economist and Inkumbi a banker, so there is something for everyone,” he said.
Nankala said he was motivated by a desire to help people enhance their financial knowledge and acquire information to become better Namibians.
“Some people do not know the avenues to get knowledge, and we are trying to get the community out there to come and learn about managing finances for their betterment and to contribute positively to the community,” said Nankala, who runs Cross Branding on a part-time basis as he is a full-time banker.
This is the second business summit the company is hosting.
“Last year, we held one at Avani in June, and prominent people came to share their financial knowledge.
“It was successful because the tickets were sold out in two weeks. However, as the event approached, the government reduced the number of people who could attend from 200 to 50, in line with Covid-19 regulations, and we split the people into smaller groups and accommodated them in separate halls and held virtual engagements,” he said.
Nankala has two permanent employees and four freelancers at Cross Branding, which was established in 2016.
“We do corporate branding, supply promotional material to companies, do social media marketing, photo consultancy services, photography, videography and graphic designing,” he said.
He said the transition to working from home during the height of the Covid-19 pandemic enhanced the business as most work was done virtually.
Nankala said the Covid-19 lockdown was good for business, because a lot of companies were holding virtual meetings in line with health protocols, and Cross Branding provided live-streaming services.
“We did this for companies as well as churches because people could not congregate,” he said.
Nankala advised aspiring entrepreneurs not to wait “to be great to start businesses, but to start now in order to be great”.
“Start now and learn from it, and even if it fails you can still try something else, because procrastination does not take anyone anywhere,” he said, adding that in five years he would like to increase the number of employees at his company.
“I also want to be working for my company full-time,” he said.
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