Ohorongo proud to enable SME's

Ohorongo proud to enable SME's

A transport supplier of Ohorongo Cement, The Six Thousand Investment CC Company was awarded The Larger Enterprise Award at The Development Bank of Namibia’s The Good Business Award evening on Wednesday, 5 November 2014.

DBN identified enterprises that have best contributed towards development . The merit of SME’s and larger enterprises has been judged by a panel of DBN and external experts, on the basis of developmental impact, shared benefits, business viability and sustainability. The larger enterprises were judged with special reference to local resource utilisation.

There were 3 categories in which awards were allocated were as follows:

• SME winner: Raino Kambonde, Raino’s Truck and Auto Repair
  
• Large Enterprise winner: Mario Upite, The Six Thousand Investment cc
  
• Innovative Business Award Winner: Regto Ndemufayo David, Smart Solutions Namibia
  

The Six Thousand Investment CC Company received a cheque from Hon. Saara Kuugongelwa-Amadhila, Minister of Finance, and Mr Albie Basson, Board Member of the DBN.

The Six Thousand Investment CC Company was established in 2006 and started off with a small bottlestore, but since then, the company has grown to own a transport division, a garage, a construction division and has a business in providing security services.

They currently own 38 trucks which have enabled them to obtain a contract with Ohorongo Cement in 2011.

“Ohorongo Cement highly values supporting SME’s, as that is the only way to get more contributions towards the Namibian economy,” said Mr Hans-Wilhelm Schütte, Managing Director of Ohorongo Cement.

“As such we are very proud to have played at least some role in supporting The Six Thousand Investment CC company to receive this prestigeous award from DBN.”

Ohorongo Cement is no newcomer to supporting SME’s and in order to achieve this objective, they are involved on several fronts:

1. Sustainable jobs: Via direct employment, outsourcing, downstream acitivies and procurement policies benefiting Namibian suppliers;
2. Long term wealth: Opening up markets & diversification of the economy through facilitation of local businesses and establishment of downstream activities, creating direct employment to more than 335 employees and creation of indirect employment creation & income generation. It has been calculated that Ohorongo contributes between 1% and 2% towards the Namibian GDP and creates more than 2 252 jobs through outsourcing and down-stream activities;
3. Outsourcing opportunities & infrastructure: The company supports smaller SME’s for various things: Pinho Pallets pallet factory started up / Gypsum mine provided gypsum to Ohorongo / Canteen & catering services for Ohorongo employees is oursourced/ Security services is outsourced / Protective Clothing is manufactured by a small company in Tsumeb / Laundry Services is outsourced / Transport of raw materials and finished product oursourced to companies like The 6000 Investment CC Company and the likes of Enkali Transport / transport of Ohorongo employees to and from the plant is also outsourced / increased buying power by smaller enterprises who came into existance lik the butchery which started up in Otavi supplying the meat for the canteen / various retailers & banking started up in Otavi / establishment of Railway sleeper factory / establishment of Brick Manufacturers, concrete piping and many more.
4. By supplying cement of International standards with consistent quality, facilitating reduction of input costs of the Namibian entrepreneurs.

“We support Vision 2030, Growth At Home and NDP4, as that is the only sustainable solution and how we can all make a contribution towards our economy”, said Schütte.