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It is with great concern that the members of the Namibian Uranium Association have learned of the impending financial crisis at NIMT, which is the most One of the best, if not the best, vocational training institution in Namibia. ] Since its inception shortly after Namibian independence, Namibia's mining and exploration sector has tremendously supported NIMT, and in fact, it was a major player in the uranium sector, Rössing Uranium, who initiated the establishment of NIMT and covered all initial costs. give the facilities to the Namibian government.
Each year, the uranium industry supports NIMT by sponsoring students and taking a large number of NIMT students for jobs. NIMT is famous for the quality of its graduates beyond the borders of Namibia, and recently 200 NIMT graduates have made us proud by building a gold mine in Mali. We therefore consider it imperative that this excellent facility continue to bring added value to the Namibian education sector and empower young Namibians with strong professional skills.
The announcement of layoffs at NIMT will result in a reduction in graduates, which obscures the industry's ability to find locally qualified staff, which in turn has serious implications for the future of operations. In addition, it is totally inconsistent with everything that the Namibian government wants to achieve, including Vision 2030 and the Harambee Prosperity Plan, as it will undoubtedly reduce the number of young Namibians who have a chance to have an education. decent.
NIMT finds itself in precarious financial situation due to a reduction in its NTA grant. Even before the reduction, the NIMT $ 25,000 NIMT receives from NTA contrasts sharply with the cost of a student from one of the government VTCs of about N $ 75,000. The actual cost of training NIMT is N $ 49,000, of which N $ 16,000 NIMT (19659003) has a balance of N $ 30,000, but the reduced NTA subsidy does not include N $. is currently only N $ 22,825, resulting in a loss of N $ 7,175 per student. This amount should be multiplied by approximately 3,680 trainees. In addition, NIMT has had to overcome many challenges for many years as NTA grants are still paid late, while the expenses are obviously regular. NIMT is wasting precious funds to serve the overdraft interest.
The Namibian uranium industry regularly contributes to the government's national training fund in the form of taxes the reserves that have accumulated in this fund to hundreds of millions of Namibian dollars. We therefore respectfully request your good office to consider the possibility of using National Training Fund levies to improve the situation at NIMT and in other vocational training centers in order to avoid layoffs and downgrading of our skills base. This suggestion is made bearing in mind that we understand that the National Training Fund is specifically designed to assist vocational training.
Your kind consideration would be greatly appreciated. We sincerely hope that we can use our collective wisdom to resolve this untenable situation. Be assured of our highest consideration at all times.
Sincerely yours
Percy McCallum
President of the Namibian Uranium Association
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