A RESEARCH PROPOSAL SUBMITTED IN PARTIAL FULFILMENT
OF THE REQUIREMENTS FOR THE POST GRADAUTE DIPLOMA OF
BUSINESS ADMINISTRATION
OF
THE UNIVERSITY OF NAMIBIA
BY
LUCAS RUMINGU SINDERE
APRIL 2013
Main Supervisor: Mr. Albert Kamuinjo
Co-supervisor(s): . .......................
Introduction
1.1 Orientation of the proposed study
In many developing countries with Namibia not an exception, SME’s play an important role in contributing to economic development. Small and medium enterprises play a central role in employment creation, providing of goods and services and growth of an economy, as well as the reduction of poverty. Most developing countries are faced with challenges such as high unemployment rate, lack of infrastructure, high dependence on imports of goods and low export, thus governments in these countries put up measures of tackling this challenges and one of the main economic drivers is SME’s development. Asli Demirguc-Kunt in her blog on blog.wolrdbank.org states that “these days, job creation is a top priority for policy makers. What role do small and medium enterprises (SMEs) play in employment generation and economic recovery? Multi-billion dollar aid portfolios across the countries are directed at fostering the growth of SMEs.” This is an indication that most countries have realised the importance of SMEs towards job creation thus the reason for many of them investing heavily in their development.
“SMEs are the major growing force behind the fastest growing economy of China, in terms of contribution to the national GDP (accounting for 40%), scale of assets, diversification of products, and creation of employment” (Bashir,2008.).
Windhoek with an estimate population of 322 500 (Censes, 2011) is the political and administrative head of Namibia has seen a significant increase in the establishment of SMEs over the past decade. The city of Windhoek has invested