Making A Better World - Milton Louw

Since Independence, Namibia’s lawmakers have been preparing laws to make all our citizens equal and to ensure that our rights are protected. They have scrapped discriminatory laws and created laws that give us access to equal opportunities. Thanks to these efforts by our parliament, all of us know exactly what our human rights are. As part of the efforts of creating equal opportunity for all, the government ministries and institutions have concentrated on bringing laws and regulations that assist in sharing the wealth of the business community amongst the black population. These laws have covered ownership of businesses in various sectors such as farming, mining and fishing as well as lifting of restrictions on certain business areas which excluded the majority of Namibians. One of the major partners in these efforts has been the chamber of commerce and industry. The NCCI was instrumental in getting one voice for business and has become a partner for development. In exchange,...

Your telephone number belongs to you. This is a basic accepted principle by any consumer. After all, who would dial your number unless they wanted to speak to you? It should therefore mean that you can keep your number even if you change your provider from Leo to MTC or even from a mobile company like MTC to your home telephone. The idea that your number belongs to you is called number portability and the method of implementing this is through a National Telephone Numbering Plan. As a consumer, you have an attachment to your number. After all, you give out on your CV, to your friends and family and to creditors. If you change your telephone service provider, you will have to face the inconvenience of learning the new number, changing your documents and making sure everyone knows your new number. This inconvenience has a financial cost and could be important in forcing you to stay with your service provider, even if you are unhappy with the service, or can get a better deal from an...

In Namibia, the Consumer Law can do a lot to prevent the endless circle of debt and poverty consumers get trapped in. Take for example the principle of in duplum. “In duplum” is a Latin phrase derived from the word in duplo which means "in double". The rule has its origin in the Roman Dutch law. It basically provides that interest stops running when unpaid interest equals the outstanding capital amount. It has always been considered illegal (and immoral) to charge interest which is more than the original amount owed, except in special circumstances but people such as banks, lawyers, debt collectors, etc get away with it because it is a common law rule. This means there is uncertainty when applying the rule, especially by the courts. Thus a creditor should not charge more than twice the original amount due - but lawyers charges, tracing fees, administrative costs, etc. can inflate the debt to almost any amount? This common law "in duplum" rule has b...

Namibians discuss the Competition Act The Namibia Competition Commission (NaCC) held a consumer awareness week in the capital from 24 to 27 September 2012. The week centred around two issues, namely the competitiveness of Namibia and the need for a consumer protection law. The participants included ministries, government institutions, non-government organisations, the media and members of the public. In the one-day workshop entitled consumer protection, an absolute necessity in Namibia, various aspects of a consumer protection law for Namibia were discussed. The conclusion of the workshop was that everyone agreed a law is necessary and everyone agrees with what should be included. So what has been the delay in tabling a bill to Parliament? The Ministry of Trade Industry's Consumer Protection Division had to decide where Consumer Protection should be housed. In other words, should it stay in the Ministry, be a new Commission or be a division of the NaCC. THAT'...

My name is Milton Louw and I am a social entrepreneur that has been developing a central register of data for Namibia since 1993. As a student of computer science and statistics I was interested in developing an economic modeling system to assist my country through the first years after Independence in 1990. At present, this personal data register includes over 1 million records, or over half the population. This comes from public information such as electoral rolls, land registers, etc. and is freely available. In 1999, I started a partnership with Creditreform Düsseldorf Frormann KG to develop a proposal for an integrated central register of personal and business data that would assist Government and the financial services industry provide better services to the people and businesses. The collection of data has continued over the 12 year period and we have met with various government officials to explain the benefits. However, the understanding of how to implement the technology ha...

Permission to reprint from Anthony Farr For decades, entrepreneurship has been viewed as something risky and mysterious that only a few lucky mavericks could master. This perception has been fuelled by a public reverence for successful individuals, who seem to have had no formal training to which their entrepreneurial success could be attributed. Some educational institutions have also shunned or quashed entrepreneurship as a non-discipline, something unteachable and incongruous with traditional discipline-based courses. Whilst the significance of entrepreneurship for a country’s economy is rarely disputed, the much-debated question is whether entrepreneurship is an elusive and exclusive “talent” that is inherent in some, or whether it can be taught and therefore extended to a wider segment of the population who will contribute to the growth of its economy. But I believe that entrepreneurship can be taught and that it is a process that begins with rethinking its definition. Rede...

Inheritance Tracing Agency is a wholly owned Namibian Company, managed and operated by Namibians. Established in 2010, ITA specializes in finding beneficiaries and unknown heirs as well as the re-unification of assets, by providing pro-active search services to individuals, companies and the legal entities in Namibia According to the founder Andreas Hamutenya, The Company’s services promote consumer education and serves as a consumer protector. Clients can buy these financial products and services without hesitation knowing that they will actually benefit from such products in events of re-location or even death. Financial institutions are also benefiting in terms of administration costs reduction as these institutions won’t be dealing with the issue of making follow ups on where-about of untraceable clients. By seeking out sources of misplaced assets in situations where heirs can not be identified or located, the company boosts awareness, confidence and trust among the general p...