The deputy Executive Director in the Ministry of Finance and Public Enterprises, Louise Shixwameni, says the appointment of the right people on the boards of directors of public enterprises has improved compared to past struggles.

Shixwameni addressed the Public Enterprises Conference, which aimed to foster dialogue and collaboration among key stakeholders to drive the growth and success of public enterprises in the country.

"One is the issue of board effectiveness; we raised that if we want to impact change, they must be keystone contributions to the economic development of this country, so we need to ensure board effectiveness. We had a lot of interactions and discussions on how to ensure that the board we appoint is quality and competent and what level of effectiveness we want from them. Because the boards are the leaders of these companies on behalf of the government as a shareholder. What we recognise is that there have really been good-quality leaders who have emerged to manage boards, and they have managed to turn companies around. For example, look at NAC. They have been in the news regularly, but now they have cooled down and are going in the right direction."

The second conference of its kind also discussed performance management in public enterprises, as these executives provide critical services to citizens, thus the necessity for SOEs to run profitably.

"And we have Namport, which has been able to declare dividends in the last 5 years. This year, they have declared dividends of close to N$60 million. There are quite a few companies that have been in trouble, but because they appointed the right people, those companies have turned around. We realised that a lot of other board chairpersons are struggling. One of the recommendations that came out was to start a leader and mentoring academy for boards and CEOs."

Additionally, the event provided a platform for exploring the best practises of the holding company model and discussing ways that public enterprises can leverage alternative funding and access investment opportunities.