WINDHOEK: Trade and Industry Minister Dr Hage Geingob announced today that the long-awaited Small and Medium Enterprises (SME) bank will be officially inaugurated towards the end of this month.
Speaking at the Rural Women’s Parliament session underway in the capital, Geingob said the SME bank has been long overdue, but he was confident that it will provide a new meaning for banking in the country and transform the lives of the previously disadvantaged.
Although the bank will operate as a fully-licensed commercial bank, its main thrust would be to provide access to finance for businesses owned by previously disadvantaged groups who fail to obtain lending from commercial banks because of a lack of collateral.
Geingob noted that the SME bank will appoint advisors for each and every project, who will continuously monitor and advise those involved in the projects to ensure that they succeed.
The bank will engage external experts and consultants who specialise in certain areas in order to ensure that the groups are empowered in their areas of business.
The SME bank will also provide mortgage loans to entrepreneurs for the purchasing of housing and business premises.
A sixteen-year-old boy who was charged for the murder of local musician Petrus Eixab in Swakopmund during June 2009, was found guilty in the Swakopmund Regional Court last Friday.
Magistrate Gaynor Poulton sentenced the minor boy to 15 years’ imprisonment, of which five years were suspended.
The stabbing occurred while Eixab, who was 27-years-old at the time, was on his way home from the centre of town in Swakopmund on 07 June 2009, where he earned a living as a busker at the entrance of the Woermann Brock arcade.
According to court reports, the minor indicated that he had a sexual relationship with the deceased and on the day of the incident, he apparently did not want to consent to sex with Eixab who was drunk, causing a fight to erupt.
He stabbed Eixab at least 10 times on the back, 10 times on the chest and twice on his feet, but was arrested on the same day.
Eixab subsequently died of substantial haemorrhage caused by the stab wounds inflicted, as indicated in the post-mortem report.