The Ministry of Education, Innovation, Youth, Sports, Arts and Culture (MEIYSAC) and Basecamp empowered creatives with a

N$1.6 million from a collective grant pool. 

Each recipient was approved for support of up to two-hundred thousand dollars towards a specific project or initiative within the creative enterprise.

The selected recipients represent a cross-section of Namibia's creative economy, including craft and handmade goods, culture and heritage, film and audio-visual production, fashion design, performing arts and music. 

The Creative Futures 2025 initiative aims to build sustainable businesses, systems, markets and long-term opportunities for creatives.

During the signing ceremony, the Deputy Minister in the ministry, Dino Ballotti, stressed that the funding is an investment from the government and urged the recipients to look at ways to expand and create employment for themselves and their communities. 

"You're one of tens of thousands of young people that are looking for the same opportunity. So be ambassadors; be that example. Please create those jobs. Grace Lau, especially you; you know why. Create those jobs, right? We hold all of us to account from both directions. You hold me to account; I hold you to account. We took that public resource, and we're investing it. We are not donating it; we're investing it into the Cultural and Creative Industries (CCI)."

Conducted in partnership with the National Arts Council of Namibia (NACN), the programme focused on strengthening Namibia's creative industries by equipping participants with entrepreneurial tools to transform their artistic ideas into viable, market-ready ventures.

The director of the Basecamp Business Incubator is Jesaya Hano-Oshike.

"Entrepreneurs, your selection is recognition that your talent, not only your talent, you know, is important but also the creative endeavours and other entrepreneurial endeavours are equally as important to make your creative enterprises successful. So we urge you to make the most out of your opportunity you are given today."

After the incubation phase, twenty-eight pitched their ventures before a panel of judges, and eight top businesses were chosen to advance as Creative Futures grant recipients. 

"With now this grant that is coming in and with the opportunities that come along with it, we are able to, like I said, take on bigger clients, which then allows us to hire more animators and designers to work with us. So we will be able to take on more people, and hopefully by the end of this whole process we can have our first full-time employees with us, says Film & Audio-Visual recipient Vernna Muronga. 

Fashion recipient Jean-Claude Tjitamunisa states, "I am pretty excited since we have seen that the government is going to take the creative industry to that level of seriousness in investing in the creative industry. I'm really honoured to be one of the first recipients of this programme, and I'm hoping to be able to use this funding to be able to take the business to a new level."

A public call for applications for the next edition is still expected this year.