Covid-19 has been a wake-up call for organisations throughout the region, according to Namport chief executive officer Andrew Kanime. “One very important lesson which has come through from these unfortunate developments is that only those businesses that can exercise extreme austerity will be able to maintain sustainability,” he told journalists at his first major briefing after taking over the helm of the parastatal in November 2020.“Contrary to the long-held notion that Namport does not have competition, we are in fact in serious competition with the ports in South Africa, Mozambique, Angola and Tanzania for this cargo from the hinterland market. “Making our position even tougher is our location on the western seaboard of Africa which puts us further away from the main markets in the Far East and makes shipping costs to Namibia more expensive than for those ports on the eastern seaboard.“The only way we can therefore be effectively competitive is through differentiation in the services we offer to our clients,” he said.Clients and other stakeholders he has been visiting will have raised the issue of tariffs. “We cannot continue to increase costs of both port services and all other support services in the logistics chain, and the only way we can compete with other ports is to charge competitive and affordable rates. “We are happy to report that we continue to make inroads in this regard and working towards offering affordable tariffs through streamlined operating costs can only amplify this competitiveness,” he said.Namport is now on a cost-cutting drive in order to reduce tariffs.“We at Namport have proactively embarked on widespread financial austerity measures as well as emphasising the exercise of prudence in everything that we do. “That means we have to streamline the costs of our own respective operations across the whole business so that we operate with leaner structures and pass on the cost savings to the end users – and in so doing be more competitive and attract cargo from the hinterland and other ports around the region. “Significantly, there is need to realign our personnel deployment in line with our targeted strategic outcomes of governance, performance and sustainability as well as ensure alignment to operational and technological developments within the industry. “To this end we are conducting detailed reviews and analysis with the view to realign our operating model and structure. “This will see us introduce, rearrange, and consolidate certain tasks and responsibilities. “While we have already finalised the review at executive management level, we are still to go through the process for the rest of staff and will be sharing the principal details once we have gone through it and finalised all the appropriate consultations,” he said. Namport is now on a cost-cutting drive in order to reduce tariffs.– Andrew Kanime
