With young people immensely affected by unemployment, the Otjozondjupa Regional Council is offering training to youth, with the aim of helping them develop as entrepreneurs.
Another group is undergoing training in poultry production.
The Otjozondjupa Regional Council says it will not promise young people jobs. Instead, it has built up a list of local residents who have come to visit their offices and enrolled them in various training programmes meant to prepare them for opportunities lying in wait.
Chairperson of the Otjozondjupa Regional Council, Marlene Mbakera, says they have selected 60 people who are to attend two days of training in poultry production.
"I want you to start by just selling chicks because now we are sitting with the challenge of suppliers when it comes to the chicks, so this is a big dream. If you are very serious, you can actually make a lot of money out of this. If you are focused, I'm not sure how many of you have already begun with chick homes, but that's what you were supposed to do when you signed up for the training."
The aim, Mbakera stresses, is to not only start businesses but also to make sure that they grow.
Agribank Namibia will be conducting the training. Raphael Karuaihe is the Chief Executive Officer of Agribank.
"The reality is that this is just the foundation that you get. You might find that you have diseases that might hit waves in one area that affect the chicks more than in another area. You will get the training here, but you will have to tailor your operations based on the realities in your area on the ground."
Hanks Saisai, Technical Advisor of Crops and Poultry at Agribank, says imparting practical skills is an important part of the bank's business policy.
"Apart from just giving money, we want people to be informed. We want people to be knowledgeable and we want people to be skilled for them to do business in the right way. The training for today is poultry production training with a focus on chicken production."
Al-Capone Kanana spoke on behalf of the trainees, expressing hope that this opportunity will bring about much-needed progress in their lives.
"For most people, finding employment nowadays and looking at the trends in employment is difficult, so you are challenged to do something to put bread on the table. You have to come up with a business idea, and for most of them you must have a lot of capital, but farming is one of them. For as long as you have the seed, you plant it, and the market for poultry is really growing in Namibia."
Upon completion of the two-day training, each trainee will receive a certificate, 25 chicks, and 10 kg of chicken feed to kickstart their businesses.
The training is valued at N$44 thousand and participants pay N$500 each, while the Otjozondjupa Regional Council subsidises the remaining amount.