The City of Windhoek faces a shortage of approximately 3,000 trading spaces for small businesses as demand continues to rise alongside population growth.
Currently, the capital has 17 officially recognised permanent open markets, one communal car wash facility, two product-focused crafts markets, and periodic markets.
However, Windhoek Mayor Ndeshihafela Larandja stated that these facilities are insufficient, leaving many small businesses and start-ups struggling to access capital and trading spaces.
To address this shortfall, Larandja announced that the City Council has approved the Informal Market Master Plan, first introduced in 2022.
“Once implemented, the Master Plan will positively transform the entrepreneurial landscape of the City. Development of additional markets will be done in a collaborative spirit through Public-Private Partnership (PPP), Build-Operate-Transfer (BOT), Joint Venture (JV), and other means,” she said.
BOTs are contractual arrangements in which private entities design, build, and operate facilities before transferring ownership to the local authority after a predetermined period.
Larandja urged potential partners to be on alert for upcoming collaboration opportunities with the City.
She emphasized the need for additional markets to support local traders, drive economic development, and create jobs, ensuring a thriving business environment for entrepreneurs and informal traders.
“If any investor can come on board to fund the construction of open markets, operate them for a certain period, and then at the end transfer them to the City, as well as through joint ventures where the City and funders come together to pool resources for the development of the city,” the Mayor said.
In 2022, the municipality also approved a Spatial Development Framework to facilitate mixed-use developments and expand informal trading spaces. That same year, plans were announced to introduce open markets in the city centre to address concerns that vendors were devaluing the central business district (CBD).
