Windhoek, Aug 5 — The first preliminary round in the 2026 Nedbank Kapana Cook-Off competition took place on 1 August in Swakopmund, where Asnath Vetamunisa, Laura Egumbo and Meameno Ntinda, secured their slots in the finale of the competition.
A total number 31 contestants took part in this coastal leg, working through a salsa preparation round before presenting their kapana dishes to a judging panel drawn from the Namibian Chefs Association.
The three women, emerged as the region’s representatives, earning their place at the grand finale, where they will compete for a fully equipped mobile kapana kitchen worth N$150 000, a Nedbank account seeded with N$10 000, and a Bakpro voucher valued at N$5 000.
The competition sits at the intersection of culture and commerce. Kapana, the grilled meat sold from informal stands across Namibia’s towns and townships, generates a livelihood for thousands of vendors. What the Nedbank Kapana Cook-Off does is give that trade a formal stage, pairing culinary skill with financial literacy training, business coaching and access to banking products designed to help vendors move from surviving day to day to building an asset they can grow.
That support matters against the backdrop of Namibia’s labour market. According to the Namibia Statistics Agency, youth unemployment stood at 44.4% as at the most recent parliamentary reporting, with projections placing the figure even higher when discouraged jobseekers are included. For a country where more than half of young people are either unemployed or actively searching for work, initiatives that create a direct route from informal trading into registered, scalable enterprise are not
peripheral to economic policy. They are part of the solution.
Speaking after the event prizegiving, Vetamunisa said: ‘I would like to thank Nedbank for this platform.
I am so happy to be a participant in this competition and will bring my a-game at the final. My first attempt in this competition was 2021, and after the learnings from previous competitions, I vowed to get the grand prize this time.’
This is the gap Nedbank Namibia has set out to close. Rather than treating kapana vending as informal and therefore invisible to the formal economy, the bank treats it as a business in waiting. Vendors who reach the competition finals leave with more than prize money. They leave with a bank account, a business plan and, for many, the first formal recognition their trade has ever received.
Nedbank Namibia Communications and Public Relations Manager, Selma Kaulinge, said: ‘The Nedbank Kapana Cook-off is designed to be a business incubator that creates real opportunities for grassroots entrepreneurs. This competition will provide financial support, training and exposure for the winner, helping them bridge to the gap between the informal and formal economy.’
Previous winners of the competition have express what that support has meant in practice. Ester Silas, a past champion, has said that competition has elevated her from a vendor into business owner and entrepreneur in her own right.
The competition now moves north, with the Oshakati round scheduled for 29 August, followed by the central round in Windhoek on 19 September. Nedbank Namibia has invested millions of dollars in the Kapana Cook-Off since its inception in 2014, a commitment the bank frames as an investment in Namibia’s entrepreneurial base rather than a marketing exercise alone.
Aspiring kapana vendors interested in entering upcoming rounds can collect entry forms at any Nedbank Namibia branch nationwide.
