For entrepreneur Paulina Alfeus and her co-founders at Power Six Investment, old oil drums provide an endless source of inspiration for the manufacture of innovative and practical pieces of furniture that delight and amaze. Together they are building not only a great business, but they are also a source of inspiration to others who want to see a more ecologically friendly environment in Africa, one that recognises the power of entrepreneurship to make a difference.

Paulina Alfeus: I’m a Boilermaker by profession. During our last year of training back in 2015, my friend and I were discussing how we are going to tackle life in case we did not get a job because most of our seniors did not have a job. We started brainstorming until we came up with the idea of upcycling oil drums.

The idea was to look for something cheap; barrels are locally available and scattered around our town. They are metal and already in good shape, all we wanted is to turn trash into treasure. We wanted low-cost materials since we didn’t have funds, and to keep our environment clean, this could be done through upcycling. I and five of my friends put together ideas, drafted a business plan, and got to work.

We are still looking for funds, such as grants, to expand our business. We have made sales countrywide to individuals and companies, but we have not yet made exports. We are looking for distributors nationally and internationally. The sales made so far have helped us to keep going and people are getting to know us. It’s not easy, but we are pushing and adding clients each month, which gives us the courage to work even harder.

Power Six Investment is 100% Namibian owned, 100% youth owned. Power Six is owned by six qualified Boilermaker artisans - 3 ladies and 3 guys. 

•  Paulina Alfeus is the Managing Director
• Hilaria Paulus is the Sales Manager
• Asteria Neumbo is the Safety Officer
• Julius Ashipembe is the Production Mananger
• Jason Vaefeni is the Customer Care Officer
• Leonard Neliwa

What inspired us was the look of our tourist places. In Namibia, we import things from other countries– the countries where most of our tourists come from. It lacks excitement when we serve the tourists in our country with furniture from their countries. We want to supply furniture that will exhibit to tourists our own culture while making them feel at home, a sense of home away from home. Presenting our unique products will make someone fall in love with Namibia.

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