Hospitality forum ends on a high note
The Africa Hospitality Investment Forum (AHIF) Conference took place in Windhoek from 25 to 27 June. Stakeholders in the hospitality and tourism industry, including investors and industry executives, came together under the theme 'Inspiring Growth, Powering Investment'.The main topics discussed were the potential for future developments and investment in the hospitality and tourism industry in Namibia and throughout the African continent.
As gold sponsors of AHIF, First National Bank (FNB) and Rand Merchant Bank (RMB) have demonstrated their commitment to supporting and driving investment in Africa’s expanding hospitality sector.
The tourism industry contributed approximately 7% of Namibia’s GDP in 2022, according to the United Nations Tourism Satellite Account (TSA) report, equating to N$14.3 billion. Tourism and hospitality remain a major growth area for Namibia, and there is a lot of potential for expansion and welcoming new tourists as well as business travellers.
Investment partners
One of the panel discussions on day two of the forum, 'Capitalising Growth: Spotlight on Active Development Financial Institutions (DFI)', focused on the role of DFIs. A panel of international and local experts discussed how DFIs support sustainable development projects by aligning their investment criteria with long-term economic goals; whereas commercial banks provide short-term financing to bridge initial funding gaps for projects in the hospitality sector.
The director of Westmont Hospitality Africa, Ewan Cameron, said development banks were a stable financing partner.
“I would like to think that working with development banks means you have a partner who sits down and asks questions about the structure, rather than just getting comfortable with the business plan. Sometimes DFIs have their relevance questioned, but I believe that DFIs are indeed relevant.”
Connie-Marlene Theyse, head of enterprise banking at FNB Commercial, said commercial and development banks complemented each other.
“DFIs have a responsibility to enable socio-economic development, and this is a key driver of their funding decisions. Commercial banks look at whether a project is commercially viable and whether a loan can be repaid. When it comes to funding, DFIs and commercial banks often complement each other. For example, greenfield projects may initially require a combination of DFI funding and equity injections.”
Dr John Steytler, CEO of the Development Bank of Namibia, said DFIs needed commercial banking partners to drive growth.
“Commercial banks can sometimes be competitive in the short-term space, while development banks prefer not to give short-term loans because development is a long-term process. We don't look at projects in isolation because we can't de-risk them. It would be reckless for a DFI to fund a project in isolation without understanding the ecosystem. When you develop an ecosystem, you need partnerships. DFIs alone cannot unlock an ecosystem.”