11SMEs in Namibia suffer from a high failure rate as the rate of business
discontinuation is four times higher than the rate of established business
activity, as defi ned by the Global Entrepreneurship Monitor. The purpose
of this paper is to identify the type of support that is necessary to
develop the small and medium enterprises (SMEs) in the poorest areas
in Namibia and to determine if a signifi cant difference exists in terms
of level of support required by SMEs between the two major towns
in the north-eastern region of Namibia, Katima Mulilo (in Zambezi)
and Rundu (in Kavango East) and between owners and managers. No
databases of businesses existed in these two towns. Subsequently, a
census of all the businesses (972) was conducted, from which a random
sample of 176 businesses was drawn. The Mann Whitney, Goodman and
Kruskal’s tau and Kendall’s tau-b tests were used to test for differences
in type of support needed between the two towns. Overall the most
‘necessary’ types of support are provision of skills/vocational training,
access to market information, a common facility centre, technical advice
and assistance with the business plan development (mainly to obtain
loans). Signifi cant differences were found between the two towns with
regard to type of support needed. In Katima Mulilo, ‘skills/vocational
training’ ‘mentoring’ and ‘advice on the organisation of the business’ are
the most essential types of support needed, while in Rundu it is ‘market
information’, ‘technical advice’ and ‘subcontracting’. This is the fi rst paper
which explores development support for SMEs in the remote regions of
Namibia