ipumbu shiimi : enhancing financial inclusion in namibia welcome remarks by mr ipumbu shiimi, governor of the bank of namibia, at the launch of the namibia finscope 2011, windhoek, 8 march 2012. * * * director of ceremony heads of syndicate member institutions ms maya makanjee, ceo of finmark trust distinguished invited guests members of the media ladies and gentlemen, good morning! i would like to welcome you all to this very important workshop, held at this very important time in the development journey of our country. these are important times because we are redefining and transforming our economy for the better, especially for those who had not been able to participate meaningfully in the economy, so far. a special welcome goes to our important partners, the finmark trust team. we appreciate your contribution with a view to enhancing financial inclusion in our country. many of us here should by now be familiar with the name finmark trust as you have been in namibia many times. four ( 4 ) years ago, finmark trust came to share the results of finscope 2007 with us, and they have also presented on several other issues in between. ladies and gentlemen, i have come to learn and agree with the proponents of the saying : “ if you cannot measure it, you cannot manage it ”. this cannot be more relevant to us, given our current efforts of wanting to address the socio - economic challenges facing our country. as a country, namibia is being haunted by challenges of unemployment, poverty, financial exclusion amongst others. to be able to address these challenges better, we need to be able to measure the depth of those challenges. fortunately for us, finscope is one of the instruments that we are able to make use of for that purpose, in addition to other surveys undertaken nationally. the usefulness of finscope has been demonstrated during the preparation of the draft financial sector strategy 2011 – 2021, especially the chapter on financial inclusion. information from the finscope 2007 served as a basis from which new targets had to be set. one would probably argue that out - dated information was used, but at least planning was based on something. a scenario of no basis for planning would have been unacceptable. as you might know, ladies and gentlemen, the financial sector strategy advocates for the need to enhance access to financial products and services for the low income and less privileged segments of our population. we have therefore keenly awaited the results of the finscope 2011 survey, as we expect them

. the light bulb was an invention with 1, 000 steps. ” this is the attitude that we should adopt ; an attitude of “ persistence until the breakthrough ”. this is exactly what namibia needs ; an army of persistent, innovative entrepreneurs that will steer employment creation and economic growth. ladies and gentlemen, as we all know, nbic aspires to be the innovation hub that sparks the interest for innovation and entrepreneurship among people from all walks of life. this is done through different programmes in place, such as workshops and individual mentoring to help people develop their innovative ideas into formalized businesses. as such, today we are marking the outcome of one of these programmes which is the business idea competition. this bis central bankers ’ speeches programme in particular, targets the general public. it is a form of inspiring citizens of namibia to initiate innovative business ideas. entrepreneurs play a key role in keeping economies strong and competitive. they are the creators, risk takers, inventors and creator of jobs and wealth in an economy. the starting point for any business centers on the belief that entrepreneurship is about creativity through a person coming up with an innovative idea in the market. in other words, one point of starting a business is to identify a problem in a certain market and come up with an idea of how to solve that problem. this was also confirmed by thomas edison when he said “ i never perfected an invention that i did not think about in terms of the service it might give others … i find out what the world needs, then i proceed to invent. ” with these words, ladies and gentlemen, entrepreneurs should be encouraged to explore causes and problems in areas they are passionate about because any problem could translate into a business. in addition, to be a successful entrepreneur, you need to have the passion, confidence as well as the commitment and ability to realize the materialization of your business ideas. of course, you also need a business plan, but at the beginning, you need to come up with an idea. in short, one can say a great businesses start with a creative innovative idea that solves a problem at hand. against this background, ladies and gentlemen, we need to change our focus and spend more time on training our people and help them to become innovative and creative. the reason is that, if we can get better ideas, we get better business plans and better businesses. for example, bill gates, mary kay, richard branson, thomas edison, debbi fields – to name just