The ‘Back Home’ Economy: Where Does Namibia’s Money Really Live?
As a Namibian entrepreneur, I have increasingly found myself asking a deceptively simple question: How committed are Namibian workers to the economies of the towns and cities in which they live? It is a question worth asking because beneath Namibia’s statistics on employment, urbanisation, housing and consumer spending lies another economy that receives remarkably little attention […]
As a Namibian entrepreneur, I have increasingly found myself asking a deceptively simple question: How committed are Namibian workers to the economies of the towns and cities in which they live?
It is a question worth asking because beneath Namibia’s statistics on employment, urbanisation, housing and consumer spending lies another economy that receives remarkably little attention — the “back home” economy.
I was reminded of this recently during an interesting conversation with a friend. We were discussing Namibia’s urban economy when he pointed out something that, at first, sounded obvious but became more profound the longer I thought about it.
Every month, thousands of Namibians working in Windhoek and other urban centres send money to their families and relatives in the villages and traditional communities from which they come.
This is not merely family support. It is an economic system.
Money earned in the city is routinely transferred to rural areas to pay for food, school fees, building materials, medical expenses, funerals, household needs and, increasingly, the construction of substantial homes.
And therein lies an interesting contradiction about Namibia’s development.
We talk constantly about urbanisation. We talk about people moving to Windhoek, Walvis Bay, Oshakati, Rundu and other towns in search of employment and opportunity. We build shopping centres, offices, residential developments and industrial parks on the assumption that urbanisation means people are permanently transferring their economic lives to cities.
But are they?
