A statement by Ndangi Katoma, Executive: Marketing, Communications and Customer Strategy, Old Mutual.

It remains a great honour for us at Old Mutual to be able to make a meaningful difference in our community and country at large. I would therefore like to thank all our valued stakeholders, more specifically the media whose role cannot be underestimated in keeping the public informed and educated on the impact of the pandemic, the way we perceive our world and everyday lives since the global outbreak.

Earlier this week, on 22 June 2020, the President of the Republic, Dr. Hage Geingob announced the national migration from Stage 3 to 4 on Monday, 29 June 2020 at midnight, until 17 September 2020. Most of us received this announcement with great joy and relief, considering that this relaxation of restrictions will enable us to gradually revive the economy and stabilize our lives again.

But while we can now enjoy a greater sense of “freedom of movement” nationally, with the exception of Walvisbay, Swakopmund and Arandis, which transitioned from Stage 1 to Stage 3 for a period of 14 days, this is a critical balancing act because with greater freedom comes even more greater responsibility.

We remain grateful that our country has recorded zero local deaths due to the corona virus up to now. But we have all seen the increase of cases especially since the confirmation of the first local community transmission on 13 June 2020 (Case 32). This leaves our families, communities and businesses very vulnerable and highly at risk, especially now that we are moving into Stage 4.

As a business that has been in operation in Namibia for 100 years this year, we have the wellbeing of our customers, employees and communities in which we operate at the centre of everything we do. Old Mutual stem from a heritage of overcomers, proven by 10 decades of uninterrupted business operations that we celebrate this year. In living up to our credo of being a certain friend in uncertain times, we are sharing our professional experience, knowledge and resources for the betterment of our country.

To that end, you will recall that on 31 March 2020 Old Mutual pledged N$5 million to help curb the COVID-19 pandemic in Namibia. This commitment is made up of specific allocation to the value of N$1 million to provide food supplies to the poor and the vulnerable. It also includes N$2,7 million for expanding COVID-19 testing capacity. The last component of this commitment is a N$1,3 million targeted pledge to contribute to the National Disaster Fund in order to mitigate the impact of COVID-19.

Today, we invited you here to witness the fulfilment of our commitment with respect to the expansion of COVID-19 testing capacity which has two sub-components or phases:

Phase 1 of this component comprise of N$1, 7 Million to acquire testing equipment, broaden scale of testing and the procurement of test kits. We procured and delivered these equipment to the Namibia Institute of Pathology (NIP) at a total cost of N$1.781 (One million seven hundred and eighty-one thousand Namibia Dollars), which were installed in April 2020.

Phase 2 of this component comprises of the N$1 Million that was pledged towards strengthening contact tracing capacity of the Ministry of Health and Social Services, the reason we are here today.

We have considered this support package informed by experience gained and lessons learned from countries that have been effectively fighting the impact of COVID-19. That experience reveal that large scale testing followed by effective tracing, isolation and treatment significantly contribute to early “flattening of the exponential infection curve”. This, we believe, will alleviate the pressure on our limited health facilities.

To capacitate the Ministry’s surveillance system capability based on the identified and prioritised needs at national, regional and district level during and after COVID-19, we are pleased to officially handover 35 Dell laptops and 37 Samsung tablets to the Ministry, procured at a total cost of N$ 998 030.46 (Nine hundred and ninety-eight thousand, thirty Dollars and forty-six cents). These laptops are each installed with Office Home software, Antivirus, a mouse and a clamshell bag. They were delivered on 11 June 2020 and have been deployed in the tracing value chain, feeding into the epidemiology function in the Ministry.

What is very important to this intervention is that post COVID-19, the lead Ministry will still be able to use these laptop and tablets for other disease outbreaks. This will make data transmission easier in terms of using the laptops to capture data on contacts identified, keep the database, do analysis and produce outputs while tablets will be used to capture contact tracing data in the field.

We want to thank the teams that made it possible especially our procurement at Old Mutual, the Ministry’s surveillance team leader and her colleagues who took us through the end to end process of Contact Tracing to better understand the system which helped Old Mutual to identify and purchase the required gadgets and got them delivered speedily. We have demonstrated that together, we can do great things.

To the women and men on the frontlines in different areas of the fight against COVID-19, we at Old Mutual say thank you and we appreciate you. In particular, we say thank you to our medical health professionals in every corner of our country who are at the forefront 24/7, risking their own lives while attending to the dire needs of a nation in a crises environment - We Are Here For You.

Let’s hold hands, let’s collaborate, let’s commit ourselves to the greater good, let’s do great things every day while we adhere to the regulations and laid down protocols at all times.