NamCot diamond brand ‘Forever Africa’ launched

AS part of its celebrations to mark its fifth anniversary yesterday, NamCot Diamonds, a private company specialising in the cutting and polishing of rough diamonds and based in Windhoek, launched a Namibian diamond brand ‘Forever Africa’.

This brand will see locally manufactured diamonds made available to the Namibian market for local use as well as for export. Through this initiative, NamCot Diamonds will manufacture jewellery using diamonds mined in different African countries.The ‘Forever Africa’ brand is part of the ‘Team Namibia’ scheme, so that it can be marketed as a ‘truly’ Namibian product.President Hifikepunye Pohamba is on record as calling on the diamond industry to accelerate efforts towards the localisation of value addition processes.NamCot Diamonds, which is jointly owned by businessmen Mwahafar Ndilula and Mathews Hamutenya and international company, Steinmetz Diamond Group, was set up in 2000 and employs over 100 workers who have been trained by the company to cut and polish diamonds.The company is a trailblazer in the country’s diamond cutting and polishing industry, having established the second cutting and polishing factory after NamGem which was already in existence.To date there are seven similar factories operational in the country.The NamCot Diamonds factory is equipped to cut and polish from 0,26 to 10 carat stones, but supply has been on the very smaller sizes of diamonds.The company has called for the sufficient supply of quality rough diamonds.Speaking at the launch of ‘Forever Africa’, Ndilula said if the trend of receiving small sized-stones continued it would exert enormous pressure on the shareholders to continually recapitalise polishing operations.Officially launching the brand after touring the factory, President Pohamba said it was gratifying to see that the sub-sector of the economy was growing and there were efforts to promote value addition to Namibian diamonds.”The fact that ‘Forever Africa’ jewellery will be marketed through local outlets should be commended because it a demonstration of a win-win partnership between local companies.These synergies can only improve the performance through the provision of skills, employment opportunities and the creation of wealth for poverty eradication,” he said.Pohamba reiterated his earlier statement that there was a need for the country to establish a strong manufacturing base, which would not only create jobs, but produce finished goods for the local market and for export, which in turn would contribute to economic growth and the realisation of Vision 2030.Through this initiative, NamCot Diamonds will manufacture jewellery using diamonds mined in different African countries.The ‘Forever Africa’ brand is part of the ‘Team Namibia’ scheme, so that it can be marketed as a ‘truly’ Namibian product.President Hifikepunye Pohamba is on record as calling on the diamond industry to accelerate efforts towards the localisation of value addition processes.NamCot Diamonds, which is jointly owned by businessmen Mwahafar Ndilula and Mathews Hamutenya and international company, Steinmetz Diamond Group, was set up in 2000 and employs over 100 workers who have been trained by the company to cut and polish diamonds.The company is a trailblazer in the country’s diamond cutting and polishing industry, having established the second cutting and polishing factory after NamGem which was already in existence.To date there are seven similar factories operational in the country.The NamCot Diamonds factory is equipped to cut and polish from 0,26 to 10 carat stones, but supply has been on the very smaller sizes of diamonds.The company has called for the sufficient supply of quality rough diamonds.Speaking at the launch of ‘Forever Africa’, Ndilula said if the trend of receiving small sized-stones continued it would exert enormous pressure on the shareholders to continually recapitalise polishing operations. Officially launching the brand after touring the factory, President Pohamba said it was gratifying to see that the sub-sector of the economy was growing and there were efforts to promote value addition to Namibian diamonds.”The fact that ‘Forever Africa’ jewellery will be marketed through local outlets should be commended because it a demonstration of a win-win partnership between local companies.These synergies can only improve the performance through the provision of skills, employment opportunities and the creation of wealth for poverty eradication,” he said.Pohamba reiterated his earlier statement that there was a need for the country to establish a strong manufacturing base, which would not only create jobs, but produce finished goods for the local market and for export, which in turn would contribute to economic growth and the realisation of Vision 2030.