NCCI mobilises on service charter

NCCI mobilises on service charterGuidelines should be drawn up by April A service excellence charter for businesses is expected to be formulated by May in order to improve customer service in Namibia. The Namibia Chamber of Commerce and Industry (NCCI) will mobilise people in several business sectors to contribute to the realisation of the Harambee Prosperity Plan (HPP).

The NCCI will do this by sensitising businesses on the importance of a service excellence charter and expecting them to develop such a charter.

NCCI chief executive officer Tarah Shaanika said this during an engagement with corporate leaders and procurement managers on the implementation of the HPP on Tuesday.

The formulation of the service charter is expected by May 2017.

Shaanika said as part of the HPP's pillar of Effective Governance and Service Delivery, the chamber is required to develop customer-service training programmes.

“We will further conduct a customer satisfaction survey to measure progress and improve on it. We need to achieve a satisfaction level of at least 70% by 2020.”

Shaanika said about N$1.2 million was needed to carry out the customer satisfaction survey annually during the HPP period (2016/17 to 2020/21).

Regarding the pillar of Economic Advancement, he said the Chamber was mandated to focus on the sub-pillar of Economic Transformation in encouraging the adjustment of individual companies' procurement policies to favour locally produced goods and services.

Shaanika said they were also responsible for increasing procurement spending on local goods and services; and supporting enterprise development initiatives.

“We need to begin a process to develop uniform procurement policy guidelines with the business sector in increasing procurement and spending on locally manufactured goods and services.”

He suggested that the guidelines should be developed by the end of April 2017.

Shaanika said companies should report to the NCCI on procurement expenditure on a quarterly basis to allow the monitoring process.

The Chamber has the responsibility to assist local suppliers to improve the quality and pricing of goods and services. “We want Namibian products of good quality and for prices to be competitive.”

About 60 corporate leaders and procurement managers attended the meeting.

NAMPA