Namibia strengthens intellectual property laws

November 23, 2018, 2:51 am

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Namibia is in the process of reviewing the Copyright and Neighbouring Rights Act with the view of developing a new Copyright Bill intended to address the realities of the fast changing copyright landscape,” Deputy Minister of Industrialisation, Trade and SME Development, Lucia Iipumbu said this week.

Iipumbu was speaking at a meeting of the Administrative Council of Regional Intellectual Property organisation (ARIPO) that was held in Windhoek.

The draft Copyright Bill comes hot in the heels of the enactment of the Intellectual Property (IP) Act, which came into force on 1 August this year.

The IP Act repealed legislations pertaining to patents, trademarks, designs, namely, the Trade Marks Act, Act No. 48 of 1973, The Patents and Designs Act, Act No. 9 of 1916, the Patents and the Designs and the Trademarks and Copyright Proclamation Act, Act No. 17 of 1923.

The Act consolidated the law on Trade Marks, Patents and Industrial design.

The key material changes within the new Act include the introduction of protection of Utility Models, expansion on the term of protection for patents from 14 years to 20 years, introduction of substantive examination for patents, introduction of annual renewal requirements for patents and the  introduction of new fees.

Ainna Vitengi Kaundu, Executive: Intellectual Property Services at the Business and Intellectual Property Authority (BIPA) told the Windhoek Observer on the side lines of the ARIPO meeting that BIPA was already carrying out stakeholder consultations on the new Copyright Bill.

“We have a framework in terms of key issues that we need to consider in the bill. The idea is to protect works such as books, notes, paintings and music,” Kaundu said.

She said copyright is important in the current competitive environment, adding that in the past, BIPA was focused on business registration, but now wants businesses and individuals to view intellectual property as an asset.

“Our business environment does not make use of intellectual property. For every person that has a business, you must have a brand. You must have a trade mark.”

BIPA is also in the process of setting up technology and innovation support centres to help entrepreneurs design and develop their innovative ideas.

Acting CEO of BIPA, Selma Ambunda, told the meeting that while globalisation, information technology and the knowledge economy create fresh opportunities, they also present new challenges to the existing international intellectual property system.

“Operating in the global marketplace requires our companies to pilot the ins and outs of different national intellectual property systems. This is often a costly and daunting exercise, especially for smaller companies.

“This consumes time and resources of our inventors, entrepreneurs and businesses, and dampens their innovative capacity, as result that many abandon the potential of their intellectual property.”

Director General of ARIPO, Fernando Dos Santos, told the meeting that a pilot database was launched in September this year and currently has more than 400,000 intellectual property titles, mainly trademarks from ARIPO Office.

Dos Santos said ARIPO launched a new MPhil programme in August this year on intellectual property in collaboration with the Kumasi based Kwame Nkrumah University and Technology and the Ghana Intellectual Property Office.

“It is also expected that a new programme will be launched in May 2019 in Tanzania, in collaboration with the University of Dar es Salaam,

 

 

 

 

 

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Factors affecting conception rates in beef cattle

November 23, 2018, 2:51 am

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In many kraals, you would observe particular cows and heifers that are exposed to the bull but the ultimate result (the calf) is not realized as with the rest of the herd, including those from the same age group.

Many farmers keep asking, “What should I do with that animal?”

These are mostly the best looking animals in the kraal; deceiving the owners with beauty and giving them hope, hence the reluctance to make that big decision, thus, continuing to invest in these animals.

At a point, every animal is supposed to pay for its bills (water, feeds, fuel, labour etc.) on the farm.  Reproduction is one mode of payment.  If the problem is not with the bull and the cow/heifer, then it is indirectly with the farmer.

Genetic, environmental and management factors contribute to the problem. The most common factors amongst others include the animals’ nutritional and health statuses.

Nutrition:  Naturally, the peak of animals’ breeding activities coincides with the season of plentiful forage resources.

Conception rate is influenced by the nutritional status of the cow/heifer before and after calving because nutrition influences the oestrus activities in cows.

Reproduction in beef cows is primarily regulated by energy which primarily controls the release of reproductive hormones (oestrogen, progesterone, GnRH, LH and FSH). The release and the activities of these hormones bring the cow on heat and to ovulate for fertilization to take place once the cow is mated.

When a cow is not adequately fed during gestation (pregnancy), the body condition decreases at parturition (calving) and thus the onset of oestrus (heat) after calving will be delayed, reducing the conception rate.

It is therefore necessary to provide adequate energy feeds to cows especially during the last trimester to avoid excessive loss of body condition and meet the energy demand.

The energy demand increases significantly during this period and at lactation because the cow’s milk production has drastically increased. If a cow’s energy demand is not adequately met, it uses the body’s energy reserves (e.g. the fat).

When this high energy demand exceeds the energy intake, then the cow may develop a nutritional disorder called Ketosis (“Ondumbo” in Otjiherero), characterized by anorexia (loss of appetite) and depression.

Vitamin A also influences conception rates. A deficiency will reduce fertility and conception rates, and in severe cases, reabsorption of a fetus.

Protein deficiency also affects conception indirectly as it reduces the animal’s appetite and thus reducing energy intake, leading to loss of weight, and reduced conception rates because the hormonal activities are suppressed by the lack of energy.

Health:  A cow’s reproductive potential can be compromised by its health status. There are a couple of reproductive diseases that noticeably or unknowingly are prevalent in many kraals or farming areas.

These diseases may cause infertility in both cows and bulls. They include; brucellosis, Vibriosis, Trichomoniasis, and Bovine Viral Diarrhea (BVD) amongst others.

It is therefore important that animals especially bulls are tested for venereal diseases before the breeding season commences, and that annual vaccinations are carried out.

In conclusion, a breeding programme on the farm should be planned in accordance with the farm fodder flow plan as well as the animal health plan.

In addition, it is very necessary to evaluate your cattle herd performance every year in order to make informed decisions, and this can successfully be achieved with a useful record keeping system in place.

*The author is Technical Officer:  Livestock within Agribank’s Agri Advisory Services Division.

 

 

‘Rössing deal potentially bad for Namibia’

November 30, 2018, 3:41 am

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Plans by Rio Tinto to offload its entire 68.62 percent stake in Rössing Uranium Limited for up to US$106.5 million (about N$1,5 billion) could be bad news for Namibia, as the country could now earn less from uranium exports,

economist, Klaus Schade, warned this week.

Schade said Namibia may earn less revenue in the form of royalties and company taxes from uranium exports if all three uranium producing mines in the country end up with substantial Chinese shareholding, as the uranium would likely not be sold on the international market, but will go directly to China at lower prices.

China General Nuclear Power Corporation (CGNPC) owns the majority stake in Swakop Uranium, which runs the Husab Mine also in the Erongo Region.

CNNC Overseas Uranium Holding Limited, a wholly owned subsidiary of China National Nuclear Corporation (CNNC), owns 25 percent stake in Langer Heinrich, which was placed under care and maintenance earlier this year due to the prevailing low uranium prices on the international market.

“The Chinese company will be involved in uranium mining and might sell the uranium to Chinese buyers, but maybe also to buyers elsewhere. Namibia is currently selling uranium, among others, to the USA and the EU, not only to China. However, it seems that the Chinese regard uranium as a strategic mineral and therefore get involved in the Namibian uranium mines,” Schade said in an interview.

He said Namibia needs to ensure, like with other natural resources, such as diamonds, that it receives market-related prices.

“Since it can be assumed that the uranium is mainly or exclusively sold to Chinese companies, and these companies are usually state-owned, there could be the risk of transfer pricing, meaning that the benefits to Namibia in terms of foreign exchange earnings and tax revenue are lower than they would otherwise be.”

Schade, however, said the Chinese takeover could ensure the continuous operation of Rössing Uranium mine.

He said the decision to shut down operations at Langer Heinrich mine illustrates that viable production was not guaranteed under the current conditions.

When asked if State-owned mining company, Epangelo, should acquire a bigger stake in Rössing (Government owns a 3 percent stake), Schade said state-owned enterprises do not have an impressive track record.

“Mining operations and other commercial activities should be left to the private sector. Moreover, Epangelo would not have the financial resources to buy Rio Tinto's shares in Rössing.”

He said uranium mining is currently a risky business, with spot market prices around US$28 per pound, while production costs in Namibia are in the range of US$40 to US$50 per pound.

“Of course, contract prices are above the spot market prices, but overall the uranium market is under pressure. We should use our scarce financial resources to fund infrastructure instead of getting involved in mining,” Schade said.

Reuters news agency quoted analysts as saying China is targeting nuclear power as an alternative to fossil fuels and since its companies already owns stakes in Namibian uranium production; it was an obvious buyer of the shares in the Rössing mine.

It said Iranian Foreign Investment Company holds a legacy 15 percent stake that goes back to the original funding of the mine, which could have been a problem for some potential buyers.

The Development Corporation of South Africa owns a 10 percent stake and individual shareholders own 3 percent.

Reuters said the sale is also in line with global miner Rio Tinto’s disposal strategy, following its exit from thermal coal this year. It is also trying to sell some of its aluminium assets.

Financial Times said CNUC has been looking to invest in overseas uranium mines to secure supplies for an expected expansion of nuclear power in China.

Its current investments include the mothballed Azelik uranium mine in Niger and a minority stake in Paladin Energy’s Langer Heinrich mine, the paper said.

“The Rossing asset is high cost and was loss making at spot. The operation was kept afloat by its sales contracts, which were priced well above spot, but the rolling off of the contracts made the asset a clear candidate for disposal,” said analysts at Numis Securities.

Chinese companies were seen as the only likely bidders for the assets and the price itself is modest,  Financial Times said.

The paper said China remains committed to nuclear power with four reactors connected this year and one more expected, a further nine in the pipeline for 2020 and with eight reactor construction projects already started this year.

The paper said a state-backed Chinese mining company would be better equipped to deal with Rössing’s Iranian shareholding than a western miner like Rio.

The US recently reinstated tough sanctions on Tehran.

Additional Reporting by Reuters and Financial Times

 

 

 

GIPF still keen on acquiring MTC shares….. As First Lady denies MTC stake claims

November 30, 2018, 3:42 am

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The Government Institutions Pension Fund (GIPF) is still waiting for the Namibia Post and Telecommunications Holdings (NPTH) to pronounce itself on how it intends to sale shares in MTC before making a move, CEO, David Nuyoma,

told the Windhoek Observer recently.

“Nothing has moved, we are waiting to see how the proposed listing will evolve,” Nuyoma said.

He said buying a stake in MTC was dependent on several factors including a good board and management.

“The company must also have good value, and like all our investments, we will do a due diligence.”

NPTH Acting Chief Executive Officer and Company Secretary,  Kristofine Itembu, told the Windhoek Observer that the plans to list MTC was still being discussed at Cabinet level.

This comes as reports circulated last week, suggesting that First Lady, Monica Geingos, and her close friend, Ally Angula, had obtained funding from GIPF to buy a stake in MTC.

Geingos, however, denied interest in acquiring shares in the mobile carrier through GIPF funding.

“I have no knowledge of, nor interest, in MTC shares,” she told the Windhoek Observer.

“It is thus patently untrue that I am part of any joint venture which seeks to purchase MTC shares. This is absurd and confirmation that this query is based on false information. I am not in any joint venture or GIPF funding application.”

The first lady is a shareholder in Stimulus Investments Limited, a private equity investment company, which focuses on acquiring interests in established, high cash yielding businesses in Namibia, as well as targeting other private equity opportunities in promising businesses with potential to deliver high returns.

GIPF’s last major investment was in March last year when it acquired a 25 percent stake in Capricorn Investment Group Limited, the mother company of Bank Windhoek, for N$2 billion.

Early this month, Nuyoma said in an interview that the fund was still interested in buying shares in MTC, the biggest mobile carrier in Namibia and widely seen as an attractive investment proposition.

“We remain interested in investing in MTC. We are excited about it up to now. Once they get their house in order, we will look at it.”

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Huawei eyes 5G in Namibia

November 30, 2018, 3:42 am

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Chinese communications giant, Huawei, says it wants to bring the latest technologies, including 5G, to Namibia.

“We would also like to work with MTC to maximally utilize its infrastructures to benefit Namibians, with ICT solutions like Safe City to make cities safer. We all know that Namibia's roads rank the best in Africa,” Huawei’s Senior Vice President for Southern Africa, Luo Lei, said during a ceremony on Monday to mark 10 years of their partnership with MTC.

Lei said the recent deal between the two companies is the delivery of a comprehensive fibre internet and digital Cloud Computing services to support government, public and private enterprises in Namibia.

Namibia has been a frontrunner in the adoption of ICT on the continent. Africa’s first DWDM, a technology that increases bandwidth over existing fibre networks was adopted in Namibia in 2011.

Africa’s first 4.5G network was also tried in the country.

“In 2017, partnering with Huawei, MTC embarked upon the journey to provide 100 percent population coverage in the country,” Lei said.

Huawei is a leading global ICT solutions provider, ranking No. 72 on the Fortune 500 list.

Chinese Ambassador to Namibia, Zhang Yiming, said with the largest Internet population in the world, China has made major breakthroughs in innovation in modern times.

“China has developed the “New Four Great Inventions”, namely high-speed railways, electronic payments, shared bicycles and online shopping, of which three inventions directly relate to mobile communication. At present, China is actively piloting and promoting 5G networks, and will continue to lead the international trend in the field of mobile communication in the future.”

According to MTC Chairman, Elvis Nashilongo, the mobile operator has paid over N$ 5 billion in dividends to shareholders since its inception.

President Hage Geingob, who was the main speaker at the event, said the MTC/Huawei partnership is indicative of the all-weather friendship shared between China and Namibia.

He said amongst the themes identified by government under Vision 2030 are Knowledge, Innovation, Information and Technology.

Geingob said the private sector must work hand in hand with the government to solve the country’s social problems, including lack of housing.

“We are well aware that the housing backlog in Namibia is ever increasing. I am informed that the numbers of shacks are estimated at 500,000 and growing by the day.

“Housing and the land are two of our top priorities. It is for this reason that I initiated the recently held Land Conference, in order to address the issue of land head on. Part of dealing with the problem is to call it by its name. The situation in informal settlements is a humanitarian crisis. There is no other way to look at it.

“Government will declare it an emergency in order to oblige relevant stakeholders to mobilize resources and accelerate implementation of conference resolutions,” the president said.

At the occasion,  MTC together with Huawei donated N$10 million towards the Buy-a-Brick Initiative. The money will be used to build 250 housing units for low -to-no-income earners at a cost of N$40,000 per unit.

 

Nimbus eyes neighbouring countries

November 30, 2018, 3:43 am

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The Namibia Stock Exchange listed ICT Infrastructure Company; Nimbus plans to spread its wings into neighbouring countries.

“Management is currently investigating the merits of investing in various opportunities within Namibia and neighbouring countries. These opportunities include a tier three data centre; fibre to the home; and a Long-Term Evolution (LTE) rollout, back to back with a MVNO (Mobile Virtual Network Operator),” the company said in its interim results for the six months ended 31 August.

Nimbus said the potential investments, if financially viable, are anticipated to be funded from the rights issue proceeds combined with gearing from a financial institution.

Commenting on economic prospects, Nimbus said the Angola economic activity is projected to continue recovering, largely driven by the oil price increase and fiscal consolidation.

Nimbus said the improved spending power of the Angolan consumer is expected to have a positive impact on the Namibian economy.

The Namibian economy has contracted for nine consecutive quarters. The contraction is driven mainly by weak performance in construction, wholesale and trade, manufacturing and real estate.

“Weak growth in construction includes base effects resulting from completion of major mines and the fiscal consolidation stance, while wholesale and retail suffer from weaker spending power of consumers and government and weaker growth in credit extension. The real estate sector is affected by the slowdown in the housing market due to the Angola effect, weaker spending power and credit extension policy.”

Nimbus owns a 51.4 percent stake in Paratus Telecom, which has offices in Zambia, Mauritius, South Africa and Botswana and Mozambique. Apart from officially operating in these countries Paratus is delivering services in more than 22 African Countries, making the group a pan-African telecommunications operator.

The move into Africa unlocked significant potential in the Paratus Group with collective revenue growing from US$9 million in 2012 to US$65 million in 2017.

 

 

 

 

 

Lessons from Rolling out an Engagement Survey

November 30, 2018, 3:44 am

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Low employee engagement can cause great harm to an organisation. The notion that engagement is driven primarily by good or bad management is outdated and often shrouded in misunderstanding.

Today, employees are looking for a sense of purpose in their careers, a feeling that they’re part of something bigger than themselves. New research suggests that this feeling isn't just empty speculation which means that realigning employment engagement becomes a business imperative.

One of the major prevailing trends in the human capital space in the 21st Century is that of Employee Engagement and Experience while at work and using surveys to determine that level of engagement. This initiative refers to exploring the entire employee experience and having a holistic view of life at work. This includes all the workplace forces; productivity, growth, HR and management practices that influence people on the job to yield a positive employee brand, satisfaction and overall alignment. Harter and Adkins define “engaged employees as those who are involved in, enthusiastic about and committed to their work and workplace”.

According to 2017 Deloitte Human Capital Trends, nearly 80% of business leaders believe engagement is critical for their business, The Corporate Leadership Council states that 90% of organisations are investing in engagement surveys to measure the experience and level of engagement of employees. However, some of the common mistakes that are made are due to a focus on measuring engagement rather than improving engagement thus, the necessary changes or impact is not felt. Some of the potential shortcomings may include:

- viewing engagement as a survey rather than a continuous means to achieving higher performance and engagement;

- focusing on the bottom line and not the employees

- concentrating on the survey reports and data instead of investing in the development of their managers and employees

- using the survey as a recognition tool for leaders and managers instead of using the data to unearth systemic problems that are interfering with engagement and performance;

- using the survey to respond to the wants of the employees, but not keeping in mind their long-term needs and that of the organisation to evolve.

This article explores how to be better prepared for the next employee engagement survey that your organisation may be embarking upon and how to improve on the return on the investment made into this initiative. In the planning of an engagement survey, the following considerations have to be agreed upon and finalised.

1. Purpose
It is critical that the leadership of the organisation spend sufficient time obtaining clarity on the motives and true purpose of why they want to participate in an engagement improvement journey. The clarification process will form the foundation of the engagement journey and will guide leadership on how to handle the overall outcome. In addition, it will assist with managing the expectations of all executives, unions, shop stewards and employees that comprise the internal stakeholders in the organisation. Educate stakeholders that the survey is a tool to enquiring ‘what’ the employees feel, but does not answer ‘why’, therefore, further engagement needs to be done to gain a deeper understanding.

The Executive, senior management and leadership teams have to champion the engagement exercise. Successful surveys start with commitment from the top. If senior management and decision makers don’t take surveys seriously and show real commitment, employees won’t commit to the process either. The HR department must be wary not to own the engagement survey process entirely. Their role is to support, and orchestrate an integrated employee experience. The HR department should have the structures, processes and technology in place to ensure the success of such an initiative and assist with employee feedback in conjunction with line leaders. The ownership lies with the line leaders and their accountability needs to be emphasised by the Executive and senior management to ensure that the necessary importance of the exercise and its takeout is imparted. According to Maylett & Wride the benefit for management and the business as a whole can be equated to the Law of Congruent Experience which is when “employees deliver
a customer experience that matches their own employee experience in the organization”

A possible suggestion is to add engagement improvement as a Key Performance item on the performance contract of line leaders and the overall team. Take note that this should not be for the improvement of a percentage score, but rather as a measurement for efforts towards the common goal of employee or team engagement at a departmental level. The line leader and employee have to demonstrate that they have contributed positively by participating and driving the common purpose as agreed as a team.

Engagement is all about motivating employees to go above and beyond. So why not design a tangible way to measure that at a departmental level? This can be initiated through action plans that each department needs to prepare and commit to with suggested actions aimed at improving the employee experience and levels of engagement. Having line leaders who inject life into the organisation is vital to the ongoing success of the company, and managers who have the ability to inspire their employees generally enjoy happier and more engaged employees. One of the root causes of unengaged employees is the top down managerial approach, where line managers who dictate to their employees what they should and should not be doing, leads to a work environment in which employees feel aloof and impartial to their work. The solution lies in getting line managers to better understand employees to unlock their potential.

Some of the mistakes that many organisations make are to wait for the survey results to become available and then act without a clear plan. There is a lot of preparation and planning that needs to be done prior to the dissemination of the results. This includes considerations such as:

- A communication or feedback plan that needs to have been developed before the release of the results and ensures that budget is fully available for any initiatives that would facilitate shortfalls in the current engagement processes, such as the development and cascading of awareness campaigns or travelling

- Consistency in the feedback message. This ensures that the assigned accountable feedback team is equipped with the necessary resources and partner with the line management who will have to own the process once the feedback is shared

- Encouraging continuous conversations between the line manager and the employee and having all preferred communication channels open and as transparent as possible, which creates an environment in which the employee feels heard and appreciated

- using practical action plan templates and having possible suggestions ready for teams to use  

- facilitating focus groups to delve into understanding the major trends and promoting courageous and solutions driven and;

- sharing the results with the organisation no later than two months after its release

Success factors
When analysing the results, one of the success factors is resisting the temptation to try to fix everything at once. Solutions to the findings may require unexpected funding, larger change initiatives, some may be legacy challenges that require creative problem solving and more time than expected. Remain realistic and try to select at least three essential items to focus on that will influence the critical mass. If the results demonstrate commonalities and trends across the organisation, it is vitally important to react to those findings. If ignored, this will result in distrust and resentment towards the survey as a tool for sourcing the employee experience and levels of engagement and result in employees being sceptical to participate in future employee engagement surveys. Only invest in this tool if the business is willing to listen to constructive criticism and make the necessary changes. Actively carrying out certain actions will demonstrate that you have listened to their feedback.

Organisations need to invest in tools that allow them to engage employees more regularly to assist line leaders to remain in sync with the expectations and values of their employees. An annual engagement survey is just one tool that allows decision-makers to have a clearer perspective of the employee experience. It is also a move towards always-on feedback or a regular, in the moment survey that are growing in popularity to evaluate the pulse of the employees at a specific time so as to react in an agile manner. It is also important to recognise the positive results from the survey and find ways to strengthen those messages to remind employees of what is good about their department or organisation. Highlight milestones on a quarterly basis  by making use of the various employee feedback channels, forums and platforms to ensure that employees are mindful of the time, discretionary effort and impactful actions that management are investing in in response to the employee opinions aired in the survey.

Using a survey with the right intentions is only one piece of a major cultural shift that organisations must make in order to improve their employee engagement. The use of a survey, however, signals to employees that an organisation is serious about transforming its culture. Used as a platform for dialogue and to own feedback, however unpleasant, a survey can lay a solid foundation for a more impactful change.

*Retuura Ballotti is the Human Resources Manager at Bank Windhoek

 

 

 

Bel Esprit Hospital offers world-class mental health services

November 30, 2018, 3:44 am

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As mental health becomes big issue in the country, Charine Glen-Spyron (CGS) the founding CEO Bel Esprit says her desire to offer world class services in Namibia was instrumental in the setting up of the facility. 

Below is an interview the Windhoek Observer Health Magazine (HM) had with her on her journey and vision for the hospital going forward?

HM: Kindly share with us the motivation behind establishing Bel Esprit?

CGS: Case studies have shown that the follow-up and continued support of mental health patients plays a vital role in recovery. While these services are available in South Africa, they are lacking in Namibia. I had a desire to be able to offer the same services in Namibia.

If Namibians are treated closer to home, where family members can be involved, and professional input can continue, the relapse rate would significantly decrease.

HM: What is your vision for the institution and what role do you want it to play in Namibia?

CGS:  The main vision is to decrease stigma and to improve and provide a much-needed service for people suffering from mental health conditions. Seeing that mental health has such a big impact on society and is an economic problem, the vision of Bel Esprit cannot be over-emphasized.

HM: Would you say you have achieved your objective by setting up Bel Esprit?

CGS: Yes and no. The reason for that is we still have a long road ahead of us. We are at the beginning of a new journey of destigmatization and there is still a lot that we can educate the community on in regard to Mental Health and what Bel Esprit can offer.

HM: When do you expect to have fully completed the construction of the facility, and when completed, what will it comprise of?
CGS:  We are hoping that the new outpatient department will be completed by end of 2018. Once that is finished the current outpatient department will be converted into a Child and Adolescent unit to address the Mental Health condition in youth.

HM: Kindly share with us your journey thus far in establishing the institution.  Please highlight some of the main challenges and milestones.

CGS: The journey began about six years ago and initially there where larger psychiatric companies involved in the vision, but time passed, and I managed to relocate to Namibia and more Namibian companies wanted to be involved.

As a result, Bel Esprit became more a Namibian initiative rather than an initiative supported by international companies.

In this journey the most difficult part was to find the right staff members who would support the project and who have the needed qualifications to make the project work. Through blessings, the right people with the right enthusiasm and passion were set on my path. 

As a team, we then started to work on Bel Esprit as a concept and formulising and grounding everything that I had dreamed of.

In terms of other struggles, because it is a new service, there is always the difficulty to educate people on what exactly we are going to do and how it is going to work.

This presents a complication as Mental Health is not similar to other medical conditions where there is a clear outcome/diagnosis and, many times, a clear timeline for recovery. With MENTAL HEALTH it is very complicated, and as much as you have a diagnosis to work with, often the recovery time is difficult to determine.

Be our diagnoses and treatment are more individualized, to explain that to other parties, for example medical aid schemes and to family members, is often difficult.

But with that said, we are sure that we will overcome this by educating the people about their journey when they or a family member suffers from an Mental Health condition.

A major milestone we reached is that we have been in operation as an outpatient facility for more than a year. We have been operational for more than 100 days as an inpatient facility and in the 100 days, we admitted 100 patients. This is a very big achievement for us especially in Namibia where there is still a lot of stigma around Mental Health.  We can say we have reached a 100 people’s lives, and that has been a big milestone for us.

We also had a lot of wellness events which we organised. We have worked with correctional services and we have educated people on Mental Health and related issues in the workplace; more than 190 people attended the three workshops we held.

In addition, we have had a number of marketing campaigns and awareness events throughout the year including:

*International Day of Happiness on 20 March. We reached out to the patients and staff members in the Mental Unit at Central Hospital and gave them hotdogs and other refreshments as an informal outreach event just to share a bit of happiness with them.

*World Health Day on 7 April we had a pop-up clinic at the Grove Mall of Namibia to create awareness that physical health and mental health go hand-in-hand. We also reached out to the community to ask what they understood about mental health.

*On AIDS Memorial Day, 18 May, we asked someone living with HIV/AIDS to share with the community the impact the pandemic has on their mental health.
*In May, we reached out to other health professionals to educate them on Mental Health and to explain to them the services we offer as a psychiatric facility.

In addition to the above events, we also did a few school visits to educate the youth on Mental Health issues. Together with this, we have a lot of blog posts that have been posted on our website that deals with Mental Health topics.

We sponsored an awareness day focusing on the impacts of drug abuse and illicit trafficking on 26 June at Wernhill Park.  We also had the opportunity to educate people on the different types of drugs and their impact on Mental Health.

On World Suicide Day, we made posters and stood on street corners to lift the spirits of those driving by. These posters had positive affirmations for example: “life is better with you in it”. The objective was to show the community that life does not need to end and that there is support out there.

Bel Esprit is also involved with a suicidology campaign driven by the Ministry of Health and Social Services (MOHSS.)

This is just to name a few of the things we have done.

So all in all, as much as we are a new hospital, in the sense that we have not been operational for very long, we have proactively worked on destigmatizing and educating the communities about Mental Health for more than a year.

HM: Would you say mental health is an area which has received less attention and deserves to be highlighted regularly?

CGS: Yes, due to the lack of understanding of what exactly Mental Health is. Mental Health issues definitely need more attention.

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Government knew of Rössing sale to Chinese

December 6, 2018, 10:29 pm

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Government says the sale of the 68.62 percent stake in Rössing Uranium by Rio Tinto to China National Uranium Corporation (CNUC) is a private share transaction between the two parties.

The comment by Mines and Energy Permanent Secretary, Simeon Negumbo, comes after the ministry was inundated with questions on the sale, as many Namibians questioned why government did not buy the stake or increase its shares from the current 3.4 percent.

He said government was informed last year of the negotiations between Rio Tinto and China National Uranium Corporation for the purchase of Rio Tinto shares.

“Rössing Uranium is not entirely being sold to the China National Uranium Corporation Limited. If Rio Tinto’s shares are sold, we will still be part owners of the company.”

The other shareholders in Rössing are Iranian Foreign Investment Company 15.29 percent, the Industrial Development Company of South Africa 10.22 percent and with other minority shareholder owning 2.45 percent.

Recently the government turned down an offer by the IDC for government to buy its stake, citing financial constraints.

Elipas Hawala the CEO of the state mining company, Epangelo told the Windhoek Observer that he agreed that the shares held by Rio Tinto should first have been offered to the government.

“Unfortunately, I am not privy to the deal. So I do not know how the deal was structured. I agree that the shares should first have been offered to government.”

Hawala explained that the right of first refusal or “pre-emption” is offered to shareholders that are having shares in the company, before it is offered to others.

“I am not sure if that was done and why the government refused to take up the offer to increase its share. My guess was this could have been due to financial unavailability.”

Negumbo said he expect the mine to continue operating under its existing and planned programmes.

Last week, economist Klaus Schade, warned that plans by Rio Tinto to offload its stake in Rössing Uranium for up to US$106.5 million (about N$1,5 billion) could be bad news for Namibia, as the country could now earn less from uranium exports.

Schade said Namibia may earn less revenue in the form of royalties and company taxes from uranium exports if all three uranium producing mines in the country end up with substantial Chinese shareholding, as the uranium would likely not be sold on the international market, but will go directly to China at lower prices.

China General Nuclear Power Corporation (CGNPC) owns the majority stake in Swakop Uranium, which runs the Husab Mine also in the Erongo Region.

CNNC Overseas Uranium Holding Limited, a wholly owned subsidiary of China National Nuclear Corporation (CNNC), owns 25 percent stake in Langer Heinrich, which was placed under care and maintenance earlier this year due to the prevailing low uranium prices on the international market.

 

 

 

IMF gives technical assistance to NAMRA

December 6, 2018, 10:30 pm

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The International Monetary Fund (IMF), as part of its technical assistance to Namibia, is helping the newly established Namibia Revenue Agency (NAMRA) to come up with a viable business plan, technical advisor to the Minister of Finance, Penda Ithindi, revealed this week.

NAMRA will become operational in March, replacing the Inland Revenue Department in the ministry of finance.

It will operate as a semi-autonomous body.

The primary mandate of NAMRA will be to assess and collect taxes and duties on behalf of the state using modern methods and administer tax, customs and excise laws.

“The current engagements are on the proposals for the formulation of the business strategy for NAMRA. As with any business strategy, the emphasis on NAMRA business strategy will be strategic objectives, strategic goals and targets to be reached in line with the mandate of the institution, including the revenue collection targets over the medium term,” Ithindi told the Windhoek Observer.

This comes after the Minister of Finance, Calle Schlettwein, revealed the composition of the NAMRA board, whose first task is to recruit the NAMRA commissioner.

The board is made up of Anna Nakale-Kawana as chairperson, Stefan Hugo as deputy chairperson, Shirene Brampton, Melanie Tjijenda and Dennis Khama.  

Schlettwein said the board has a January 2019 deadline to appoint a Commissioner.

The minister told board members that their main task will be tax collection and must leave issues of tax policy to the government.

“You can advise, but that is not your main task. The recruitment of key senior staff is another task,” Schlettwein said, adding the board must ensure it happens quickly.

He said NAMRA will start on a clean slate in terms of staff composition, saying that former staff members of Inland Revenue who did not meet the requirements will be returned to the finance ministry and not transferred to NAMRA.

Schlettwein said a report on the skills audit of Inland Revenue staff will be given to the board to determine the workers with the necessary skills to be retained by the agency.

“NAMRA will be as good as its staff. A new institution can never be an old institution with better salaries,” he said.  

Schlettwein said Inland Revenue has performed fairly well despite the fact that Namibia is the last country in southern Africa to set up a semi-autonomous revenue body.

“Cracks have appeared of late. But we have reached a point of no return; we need to reform the system.”

The Namibian newspaper reported in July that a report into Namibia's biggest money laundering and tax evasion scheme found that companies accused of fraud shipped more than N$4,3 billion out of the country over three years.

This was among the findings contained in a 21 June 2018 draft report compiled by KPMG Namibia, which was submitted to the government early this year.

 

 

Chinese deal best option for Rössing – MD

December 6, 2018, 10:30 pm

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The Windhoek Observer’s Chamwe Kaira (CK) asked Rössing Uranium’s new MD Richard Storrie (RS) about his appointment and the announcement by long term majority shareholder, Rio Tinto, to sell its stake to China National Uranium Corporation (CNUC) barely two months after Storrie joined the company.

CK: How have the workers and the trade union reacted to the announcement last week that China National Uranium Corporation will buy the majority stake in Rössing Uranium from Rio Tinto?

RS: We believe that China National Uranium Corporation (CNUC) offers the best possible future for Rössing, building on its strong and proud history.

CNUC was identified as a reputable and experienced operator which has the potential to invest long term in the Rössing business. It is a priority for me and the leadership team at Rössing to ensure that our people are kept up to date during the transition period.

Change can be unsettling, so it is vital that we all remain focussed on doing our jobs safely and that we support each other. I will do my best, along with the entire management team, to make myself available to answer any questions from our employees and to share information as and when it becomes available.

CK: Where you aware of the impending sale when you joined the company?

RS: Over the past few years, Rio Tinto has been reviewing and shaping its portfolio of assets across the world. The review concluded that it was in Rössing and Rio Tinto stakeholders’ best interests to find a new owner.

Transactions of this nature take time and negotiations have to be confidential, therefore it was not possible to inform our people before the binding agreement had been signed.

As soon as this had happened, we made it our priority to talk to our employees, contractors and other stakeholders. We believe that CNUC is well placed to take the business forward and invest in the future and long term growth of the asset.

CK: Why did you take up this challenge of becoming the new MD of Rössing Uranium?

RS: With over 20 years’ experience working for Rio Tinto and having worked as load and haul engineer here at Rössing before, I was considered an appropriate candidate to lead the mine. I have fond memories of my time here during my first assignment and look forward to contributing to the business again.

CK: The uranium industry is going through tough times at the moment. How do you hope to tackle this challenge and help keep Rössing going?

RS: Rössing’s focus has always been to be a safe, sustainable and competitive business. While the uranium market remains challenging for producers around the world, Rössing has over several years focused strongly on controlling costs and remaining competitive.

Since I arrived at Rössing, I have been impressed with the passion and commitment of everyone here to finding ways to implement cost-saving and production improvements in order to stay ahead, whatever happens with the global uranium market.

CK: How does it feel to come back to Namibia and lead Rössing and what are some of the fond memories you have of working at Rössing 20 years ago?

RS: It feels great to be back. I have very fond memories of my time here in the 90s: working at the mine, enjoying the stunning countryside with my young family and particularly because my son was born in Swakopmund.

CK: What are your immediate priorities as the new MD?

RS: For Rio Tinto and for Rössing, it is business as usual whilst we work towards completing the sale, which is expected in the first half of 2019. My priorities are the safety of all our people, the safe and productive operation of the mine and providing support to our highly experienced and committed team during the transition period.

CK: What is your view on the future of the price of spot uranium on the international market?

RS: I can’t predict the future. We will continue to work hard to implement cost-saving efforts and production improvements in order to stay ahead, whatever happens with the global uranium market.

CK: Briefly tell us about your family and hobbies.

RS: My wife, Bridget, is finishing her field studies for her PhD with University College London and will join me in Swakopmund in the New Year. My two daughters and son have all grown up and are in university in the UK. I used to play rugby and played a couple of games in Swakopmund when I was last here. But it’s been a while. I now play it safe and stick to just running to keep relatively fit.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Foreign reserves decline to N$31 billion in October

December 6, 2018, 10:31 pm

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The stock of international reserves held by the Bank of Namibia declined both on a monthly and annual basis, at the end of October, according to the latest Bank of Namibia (BoN) money statistics.

The stock of foreign reserves decreased by 4.2 percent, month-on-month and by 1.4 percent, year-on-year to N$31.2 billion at the end of October.

“The monthly and annual decrease in reserves was partly on account of net capital outflows from the commercial banks as a result of increased foreign currency purchases, coupled with net government payments and the exchange rate appreciation,” the central bank said.

Liquidity levels of the banking industry slowed to N$3.4 billion during October, from N$4.7 billion at the end of September.

“The liquid balances in the local banking sector declined as investors moved funds out in search of better yielding investment opportunities as well as for payment purposes outside the country.”

The growth in total credit extended to businesses continued an upward trend during October.

The annual growth in credit extended to businesses stood at 7.1 percent, compared to 6 percent at the end of September.

“The improved growth was driven by an uptake of short-term credit facilities by businesses in the services, fishing, manufacturing and mining sectors during the period under review,” the central bank said.

Credit extended to the household sector rose slightly to 7 percent from 6.9 percent reported at the end of September.

“The meagre increase in credit extended to the household sector was underpinned by a higher uptake of mortgage credit, coupled with the continued increase in other loans and advances during the month under review.”

The annual growth in total overdraft credit increased significantly in October to 7.2 percent from 2.9 percent.

 The sharp growth was due to a higher demand for overdraft credit by the business sector, specifically in the mining, services, manufacturing and fishing sectors.

In terms of inflation, annual inflation rate stood at 5.1 percent in October, higher than 4.8 percent in September.

“The rise in inflation during the period under review was mainly triggered by increases in the categories; transport, education as well as alcoholic beverages and tobacco.”

 

 

 

Geingob opens Peugot-Opel Assembly plant

December 6, 2018, 10:32 pm

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President Hage Geingob officially opened the Peugeot-Opel Assembly Plant in Walvis Bay on Wednesday.

“The plant is a significant event for the development of the Erongo Region, most notably Walvis Bay. However, its significance is further amplified by the fact that it augments our national development aspirations and signifies to the international community, Namibia’s intent to become one of the premier destinations for Foreign Direct Investment in Africa,” the president said.

Geingob said since independence in 1990 it has been the government’s objective to create conditions necessary for increased investment and the development of a competitive industrial sector.

“Furthermore, in recent years, we have intensified efforts to promote local value addition and strengthening of forward and backward linkages within the Namibian economy.”

He said the government’s efforts to attract Foreign Direct Investment to Namibia’s shores are not merely for the purpose of establishing factories, but the investment should ultimately buttress the country’s efforts to boost local enterprise development and increase the entry and participation of emerging and existing businesses into the mainstream economy.

“Namibia is still faced with the triple challenge of severe pockets of poverty, unemployment and unequal distribution of income.”

Geingob said Peugeot-Opel Assembly Namibia Plant, will be a project that will bolster the diversification strategy set out in the Growth at Home Strategy.

“We expect our local small and medium enterprises to incur benefit from this investment, further enabling Namibia to realize the positive externalities and spill overs from FDI. The automotive industry is one of the sectors identified in our Growth at Home Strategy as a priority sector.”

He said government is cognizant of the fact that the primary objective of all investors, whether multinationals or local small and medium enterprises, is to make profit.

“Due to the socio-economic realities in the country, it is pertinent that investors remain conscious of issues such as the high level of youth unemployment, gender parity and undertake all efforts to support the country’s development agenda.

“Improving the competitiveness of our workforce is becoming increasingly urgent with the advent of the 4th Industrial Revolution. This is the new reality, which is characterised by digitization, artificial intelligence and robotics.” 

Geingob disclosed that there are a number of countries in the region that would have been happy to host the plant, but said the negotiations revealed the commitment of the Namibian Government and Peugeot, to make Namibia the preferred choice for this Assembly Plant.

“The plant is another example of the fruits of the robust Franco-Namibia relationship.”

The plant is a joint venture between Peugeot and the Namibia Development Corporation.

It is expected to produce 5,000 units by 2020.

 

Namibia is a country in trouble - economist

December 14, 2018, 3:35 am

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Economist Rowland Brown said this week that from a macroeconomic perspective, Namibia is a country in trouble.

Brown, who was giving his thoughts on the performance of the economy this year, said while the country’s challenges are certainly not insurmountable their redress requires a number of tough decisions, many of which revolve around the budget.

“The reason for this is that for a number of years, public funds, allocated through the budget process, have provided a bastion for large-scale rent seeking, this is to say that through public expenditure, particularly, there is a large portion of the Namibian economy that is consuming or costing more than it is producing.

“While this can be sustained in the short-term, in Namibia’s instance largely through debt increases, over the long term it becomes unsustainable,” he told the Windhoek Observer.

 
Brown said the “rent seeking” takes many forms, including an oversized and often inefficient civil service, which he said was  the fifth most expensive civil service relative to GDP in the world, excessive military, defence spending (the 12th highest defence spend to GDP in the world), a number of poorly run and inefficient state-owned enterprises, procurement middlemen, corruption, theft and leakage; excess regulation, buildings and vanity projects with no hope of generating a return on investment.

“All of these rent-seeking activities require financing from somewhere, and in many instances, the funding has come about as a result of a process of collecting revenue from the industrious activity of employed persons, corporates and similar, as well as from debt issuance.

“However, with each dollar that is redirected to rent seeking activity, economic inefficiency is introduced, and potential long-term growth is lost.”

Brown said for Namibia to recover from the current economic environment and return to a positive long-term growth trajectory, many of these inefficiencies need to be addressed.

“However, this requires hard decisions from policy makers, which decisions are neither politically popular nor expedient.”

He said Namibia’s fiscal problems do not stem from the revenue side of the budget or from a small minority of tax-payers that avoid and evade tax, but said the problems lie in the utilisation of funds.

“Without the extensive rent-seeking mentioned above, the Namibian government could easily achieve greater developmental outcomes for the majority of the Namibian people, with the same funds.”

Brown said much of the resolve of Namibia’s fiscal challenges rise and fall in the ambit of political will.

“It is political will that will bring about substantive expenditure changes away from rent-seeking towards productive activity and economic growth. However, without substantial political will, fiscal slippage, particularly in the areas of the wage bill, defence spending and SOE bailouts, will be inevitable.”

He said this will in turn bring the government to a point where efforts to increase revenue will be the only option and last resort.

“In fairness, this can be achieved in one of two ways – increase the tax burden on a shrinking economy, or grow the economy.”

 He said increasing tax is undesirable, but yet is the option with which the government is flirting.

“If pursued, we will end up leaning ever more heavily on a small productive part of the economy to support an ever more relatively substantial rent seeing component of the economy.”

In terms of growing the economy, he said much like the restructuring of expenditure, returning the economy to growth requires political will.

“There are only four components of GDP (household consumption, government spending, net-export and investment). Only one of these is a leading competent, the rest follow. That component is investment.”

Brown said it is understandable that positive policy for the already relatively wealthy is counter intuitive for some, it is this accumulation and deployment of capital that causes an economy to rise, taking with it the living standards of its people.

“Thus, it is vital that Namibia turns away from populist propaganda-style policies towards positive investment policies for growth. It is only through measures such as this that household spending can grow sustainably once again, that government revenue can do the same, and that exports can be increased and imports reduced.”

 

 

 

 

Netflix giving Multichoice a run for its money

December 14, 2018, 3:36 am

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Netflix is giving Multichoice South Africa, stiff competition with its subscriber base increasing, latest figures released by the company have revealed.

Multichoice Namibia refused to divulge figures when asked how Netflix had impacted on its business in Namibia.

In the year ending March 2018, Multichoice South Africa lost 41,000 subscribers. The previous year, it lost 100,000 subscribers.

Netflix has so far attracted 400,000 subscribers in South Africa while DStv has 7.2 million customers.

Levana Cloete, Corporate Affairs Manager at Multichoice Namibia, told the Windhoek Observer that despite the impact of over-the-top (OTT) offerings like Netflix, Pay TV is holding its own.

 “OTT offerings are sometimes a substitute and sometimes a complement to linear broadcasting.  Linear television still has the advantage of great family viewing value as well as live sport and news, which make up significant value to customers.”

Without giving exact figures, Cloete said statistics show that despite the proliferation of OTT services on the market, Multichoice Namibia is seeing a bigger segment of viewing still happening on pay television and free to air (FTA). 

“The challenge for OTT in Africa is cost and accessibility; viewers can’t watch long-play streaming video over a mobile network because of the expense.  There is a window of opportunity in most territories that will take time to penetrate.”

OTT is currently not regulated in Namibia because it’s online and in many countries there is an increase in regulation such as payment of tax and classification of content.

Multichoice has introduced its own of over-the-top (OTT) offerings, Showmax and DStv Now.

DStv Now is ‘TV Everywhere’ with live and catch-up content on the go and Showmax is a standalone SVOD service that draws on the content strength of the group to provide a line-up of movies, series, animation and much more.

Showmax is an online subscription video on demand service which launched in August 2015.

“We are getting a positive response from our customers in Namibia, particularly on our DStv Now offering as our DStv customers get to watch the latest sports and TV shows on their smartphones, tablets or laptops anytime and anywhere they want,” Cloete said.

She said the data challenge will determine the speed of uptake as the majority of data connectivity across Africa is mobile-based, and the cost of that mobile data is in many cases still prohibitive.  

“This will improve over time, as fibre and other solutions like fixed Long Term Evolution (LTE), which delivers the fastest connection for a mobile internet experience, become more prevalent.”

 

 

 

 

 

 

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PSG cut growth forecast for 2018

December 14, 2018, 3:37 am

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PSG Namibia has cut its 2018 GDP growth forecast to -0.4 percent from -0.2 percent, Head of Research, Eloise du Plessis, said this week.

Du Plessis noted that positive GDP data continues to elude Namibia as it has now suffered nine consecutive quarters of negative year on year real GDP growth.

“Owing to the dismal first half GDP figures, we cut our real GDP growth forecast for 2018 to -0.4 percent from -0.2 percent.”

She said the current account deficit is expected to narrow somewhat during 2018, thanks to strong growth in diamond and uranium exports.

“However, the improved export performance is expected to be capped by higher fuel import costs and lower Southern African Customs Union (SACU) revenues. We expect the current account deficit to narrow to 3.9 percent of GDP in 2018 from a deficit of 4.9 percent of GDP in 2017.”

Du Plessis said the average inflation rate is expected to decline to 4.5 percent in 2018 from 6.2 percent in 2017, owing to weak domestic demand.

She, however, said upward inflation pressure is building due to higher fuel and administered prices as well as renewed currency weakness.

PSG expects the economy to rebound in 2019 although at a weaker pace than earlier thought, following an improvement in the construction industry aided by an N$10 billion African Development Bank loan which will support government capital expenditure.

Du Plessis said factors that may hinder growth include the depleted livestock and fish stock numbers, and irregular rainfalls.

“The retail and wholesale trade sectors are having a tougher time adjusting to the fiscal consolidation and tighter credit conditions than we had anticipated they would. Meanwhile, a slowdown in Chinese growth and continued global trade disputes have weighed on global trade and financial market stability, which have suppressed the rebound in commodity prices and exports

 

Policy uncertainty affecting FDI inflows

December 14, 2018, 3:37 am

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Policy uncertainty on a number of government plans including the outcome of the Second National Land Conference and the National Equitable Economic Empowerment Framework (NEEEF) have affected Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) into Namibia, economist Mally Likukela has said. 

“There is very little hope for FDIs due to a combination of retroviral policies and uncertainty on the outcome of NEEEF and the recent land conference resolutions,” he said.

Among the resolutions of the conference was that foreign-owned agricultural land should be expropriated without compensation, a move seen as sending jitters to investors.

The conference also resolved that foreign investment in real estate should be regulated and no land should be sold to foreign nationals.

Likukela commended government’s decision announced in April to scrap a clause in NEEEF that would have forced majority white-owned businesses to sell a 25 percent stake to previously disadvantaged Namibians.

Likukela said the business environment continues to be investor unfriendly, while the cost of doing business has continued to increase.

Namibia dropped to 107 in the 2018 World Bank Easy of Doing Business ranking released in November from 106 last year. The report showed it takes 10 procedures to register a business, a process which takes 66 days.

Likukela said government must remove unnecessary bureaucratic red tape to attract investors.

“The government must pursue investor friendly policies and win back investor confidence in the country.”

He thinks that the economy will continue to struggle next year, although some economists expect the economy to grow modestly.

“The prospects for economic recovery in 2019 are gloomy. What will appear to be some form of recovery is actually unhinged GDP growth that will emanate from increased government spending in line with the upcoming national election activities. Once that artificial growth has cooled off, the economy will slip back deeper into recession. This unhinged GDP growth could bring about a recession deeper than the current recession,” he said.

Likukela said public debt to GDP is assumed to have grown to over 50 percent already.

He warned that with elections on the horizon, government may be forced to deliberately depart from national priority documents such as Harambee Prosperity Plan and the Fifth National Development Plan. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

2018 business news highlights

December 14, 2018, 3:39 am

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This year continued to be characterised by an economy in recession and reduced government spending, which accounts for about 60 percent of total spending in Namibia.

Apart from the recently opened Peugeot-Opel Assembly plant in Walvis Bay and the planned Otavi steel plant that is expected to produce 100,000 tons of steel, little in terms of Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) came to Namibia this year.  Hopes of an oil find faded when the two wells that were drilled offshore turned out to be dry.

 

January

Biokineticists lobbied Namfisa to cancel gym rebates

Biokineticists operating in the country are alleged to have lobbied the Namibia Financial Institutions Supervisory Authority (Namfisa) to cancel gym and wellness rebates, the Windhoek Observer established in January.

However, the Biokinetics Association of Namibia strongly denied this allegation. Chairman of the association, Henry Boshoff, said biokineticists had been negatively affected by the cancellation of the rebates programme.

 

February

De Beers ‘undervaluing Namibian diamonds’

Namdia claimed it was selling its 15 percent allocation of diamonds produced by Namdeb Holdings for over and above the De Beers selling book price.

Namdia said it sold diamonds worth over N$1 billion and paid N$60 million to the government in taxes.  In reaction, De Beers Country Director, Daniel Kali, said he could not comment on matters related to Namdia since he has no access to its selling mechanisms, their clients or what prices are paid for their diamonds.

 

Govt to unbundle NamPower

Government announced plans to unbundle power utility, NamPower, into generation, transmission and distribution units. Minister of Finance, Calle Schlettwein, and Public Enterprises Minister, Leon Jooste, told the Windhoek Observer that government had already set the unbundling plans in motion.

 

March

Justice building conversion to cost N$430m

Government’s plan to make money from its properties started taking shape, amid revelations that a project to convert the Ministry of Justice offices in Windhoek into a multipurpose building, made up of offices, commercial or residential facilities, will cost about N$430 million.

 

Defence to splash N$5 billion on bases

The Ministry of Defence was set to spend N$5,2 billion on various construction projects in the period up to 2020/2021 despite a government-wide freeze on non-productive spending.

The construction projects came at a time when the ministry sent on leave about 1,000 army personnel at seven bases around the country because it could no longer afford to feed them as well as foot their water and electricity bills.

 

April

Govt scraps plan to force businesses to sell 25 percent stakes

Government scrapped a clause in its economic empowerment framework that would have forced majority white-owned businesses to sell a 25 percent stake to previously disadvantaged Namibians, President Hage Geingob said.

 

Billions for railway upgrades

Government is set to spend at least N$5 billion in upgrading the country’s railway network over the next three financial years, according to the Ministry of Works and Transport budget documents.

The projects include the rehabilitation of the Southern Railway line section, Sandverhaar-Buchholbrum, the upgrading and the rehabilitation of the Auas-Luderitz Railway line extension.

 

May

Five regions targeted for garment factories

Five regions have been identified by the ministry of trade as potential locations for the garment manufacturing plants the government is planning to set up.

The targeted regions are Oshikoto, Otjozondjupa, Zambezi, Erongo and Kavango West.

According to the 2018/2019 budget document, government is planning to set up garment manufacturing companies at a cost of N$189 million.

 

June

Auditor General prays for more powers

Auditor General, Junias Kandjeke, is hopeful that proposed amendments to the State Finance Act will give his office more powers to bring to book public officials abusing State resources.

This comes as a trend is developing across Africa, where Auditor Generals are being given more powers to bring to book government officials accused of abusing tax payers’ money.

South Africa’s Parliament in May passed the Public Audit Amendment Bill‚ which gives the office of the Auditor-General more bite.

 

GIPF announces infrastructure fund

The Government Institutions Pension Fund (GIPF) announced plans to launch an infrastructure fund with a minimum funding capacity for projects worth N$100 million. This is an increase from the initial GIPF infrastructure fund launched in 2016, which had a minimum investment threshold of N$56 million.

 

July

Namcor guns for 50 percent import mandate

The National Petroleum Corporation of Namibia (NAMCOR) has laid out plans to have its 50 percent fuel import mandate handed back to the company, Managing Director, Immanuel Mulunga, told the Windhoek Observer in July.

“All I can say is that we are making an application to get the 50 percent mandate back. Once we make that application, the ministry will decide whether they will give it back to us. It will happen in the next two to three weeks,” Mulunga said.

 

August

Letshego pays maiden dividend

Letshego Namibia paid its maiden dividend of 19.20 cents per share following its September 2017 listing on the Namibian Stock Exchange. The company listed on the local bourse on 28 September last year at a share price offer of N$3.80.

 

TransNamib eyes SA manganese exports via Luderitz

State-owned railway operator, TransNamib, said it was considering the merits of transporting manganese from South Africa’s Northern Cape mines by rail for export via the port of Luderitz.

CEO, Johny Smith, said the company was working on opening the railway line between Keetmanshoop and Luderitz before the end of this year in order to facilitate the planned exports.

 

NBL weighs export plant outside SA, Namibia

Beer maker, Namibia Breweries Limited (NBL), said it was considering setting up a plant outside Namibia and South Africa from where it can export its products to its growing African markets.

Namibia Breweries said it would likely partner with Heineken in the proposed venture without giving further details on where this plant or facility would be located.

 

Telecom achieves first profit in four years

Telecom Namibia posted a positive bottom line for the first time in four years, the company’s Annual Report for the year ended 30 September 2017 showed.

The company said despite revenues remaining flat, cost management initiatives and solid debt collection ensured that the company posted a comprehensive profit of N$9 million (2016:  N$41 million comprehensive loss) and the group, N$249 million ((2016:  N$26 million comprehensive loss.).

 

September

 

Namdia seeks new clients for rough diamonds

Namibia Desert Diamonds or Namdia announced it was in the process of adding at least 10 new clients to buy its rough diamonds, to bring the total number of clients to 15.

 

October

Capricorn sees potential growth in Botswana, Zambia

The Capricorn Group said in October that it sees potential growth in its Botswana and Zambian operations in the near future with a potential of increasing their contribution to the group’s profits.

 

Still no oil find in Namibia

Oil majors Tullow Oil and Chariot Oil and Gas failed in their bids to find oil offshore Namibia.

Chariot drilled in its Central Blocks licence offshore. Tullow Oil also announced that its Cormorant-1 exploration well in the PEL-37 licence, offshore Namibia had encountered non-commercial hydrocarbons.

 

Namibia drops one place on competitiveness ranking

Namibia dropped one place on the Global Competitiveness Report with a ranking of 100 out of 140 countries. The report said Namibia is the 6th most competitive economy in sub-Saharan Africa.

 

Manufacturing incentives flop

Finance Minister, Calle Schlettwein, admitted in October that manufacturing incentives, which government offered as part of its Vision 2030, had flopped. He said that 12 years before 2030, growth in manufacturing had averaged 11.7 percent a marginal increase from 11.1 percent at the introduction of the manufacturing incentive regime in 1995.

 

Controversial additional mining conditions scrapped 
Mines and Energy Minister, Tom Alweendo, scrapped the controversial additional conditions on exploration mining licences that had threatened Namibia’s position as one of Africa’s top mining investment destinations.

According to the scrapped conditions, the management structure of a mining entity were to consist of a minimum 20 percent representation of historically disadvantaged Namibians and at least five percent of the company should have been owned by Namibian persons or by a company wholly owned by Namibians.

 

November

Namibia drops in Ease of Doing Business

Namibia dropped to 107 in the 2018 World Bank Easy of Doing Business ranking from 106 last year.

 

Otavi plant to produce 100,000 tons of steel

A planned steel manufacturing plant at Otavi is expected to produce 100,000 tons of steel, officials revealed.

The Noric Otavi plant is owned by Namibian company, Otavi Rebar Manufacturing (Pty) and Swiss-based Noric Swiss GmbH Noric.

 

December

Rössing sold to Chinese firm

Rio Tinto announced that it had decided to offload its entire 68.62 percent stake in Rössing Uranium Limited for up to US$106.5 million (about N$1,5 billion) to China National Uranium Corporation (CNUC).

 

Geingob opens Peugeot-Opel Assembly plant

President Hage Geingob officially opened the Peugeot-Opel Assembly Plant in Walvis Bay commending the plant as a significant event for the development of the Erongo Region, most notably Walvis Bay.

Boards for PPP scheme and Namra announced
Minister of Finance, Calle Schlettwein, announced members of the Public Private Partnership Committee. The committee will be chaired by new Ministry of Finance Deputy Permanent Secretary, Ally Angula. It also includes Nangula Uandja, James Myupe, Helen Amupolo, Annely Haiphene, Micheal Mukete and Steve Galloway.
Schlettwein also announced the board of the Namibia Revenue Agency (NAMRA) which is made up of Anna Nakale-Kawana as Chairperson, Stefan Hugo as Deputy Chairperson, Shirene Brampton, Melanie Tjijenda and Dennis Khama.  Schlettwein gave the board a January 2019 deadline to appoint a Commissioner.

Nitrate plant pursues uranium mine clients

January 24, 2019, 11:01 pm

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A local company, Native Storage, has laid out plans to set up a nitrate plant near Walvis Bay to produce explosives to be used mainly at uranium mines at the coast.

The uranium mines operating at the coast include Husab, which is majority owned by China General Nuclear Power Corp (CGN), and Rössing Uranium, whose major shareholder, Rio Tinto, has entered into a binding agreement to sell its 68.62 percent stake in the mine to China National Uranium Corporation.

Paladin’s Langer Heinrich is currently placed on care and maintenance while Orano’s Trekkopje mine was mothballed in 2012 due to low uranium prices.

Director of Native Storage, Thomas Jonas, told the Windhoek Observer that N$20 million will be invested to set up the plant and that 45 professional jobs will be created.

“We are targeting people who are being retrenched from mines. These are not entry jobs, but professional jobs for people with degrees in chemistry, for example,” Jonas said.

He said mines already produce explosives, but on a small scale since large scale explosives cannot be produced on their plants because of safety considerations.

In the document stating their plans, Native Storage explained that various explosives are used in blasting, with Ammonium Nitrate (NH4NO3) being the major blasting agent.

Native Storage said it has interest in manufacturing of mining explosives using inverse emulsification of Ammonium Nitrate technology, according to documents made available to the Windhoek Observer.

“The company’s intent is to establish a containerised mobile emulsion plant,” it said.

The company is in the process of conducting an Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) and has appointed Tortoise Environmental Consultancy (TEC) to undertake the study and develop an Environmental Management Plan for environmental protection and sustainability.

TEC has already started holding public meetings at the coast.

Documents show that the emulsion plant is more effective and less destructive towards the environment compared to old techniques.

Native Storage is leasing 10 hectares of farm 38 from the Walvis Bay Municipality for the purposes of setting up the plant.

Farm 38 is said to be zoned for heavy industries and is far away from residential places.

“Safety analysis was conducted in partnership with the Namibia Defence Force, and the site was given a clearance. This location was strategically chosen as Walvis Bay is the biggest transport hub in Namibia, hence it is cost effective. The other reason was that there are many uranium mines in Erongo region.”

The company said the project is not expected to have significant impacts to the environmental.

Potential impact would include risk of fire and explosion as well as release of gases into the environment.

“The project does not pose a threat to air quality or water quality, and because it is containerised, there is no threat of land degradation. Further, the system is semi-automated, so it does not pose health or safety risks to the people. A comprehensive impact assessment shall be done during the Environmental Impact Assessment process and adequate mitigation measures shall be developed,” the company said.

 

Govt oscillates on desalination plant

January 24, 2019, 11:01 pm

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Government is still to decide whether to build a new desalination plant at the coast or buy the existing one owned by Orano, the newly-appointed NamWater CEO, Abraham Nehemia, told the Windhoek Observer this week.

Another option is a joint desalination project between Namibia and Botswana, although Nehemia said this was a longer-term plan.

“All these are government projects. All options are on the table,” he said when asked by the Windhoek Observer whether building a desalination plants is on top of his agenda as the new water utility CEO.

Orano has in the past offered the desalination plant to the government for US$200 million, a price the government rejected as being too high. 

Media reports last year said the government of Botswana was also keen on buying the plant and planned to pump water to its capital city, Gaborone.

Nehemia said all desalination water plans by the government are long-term projects to ensure security of supply to Namibia.

With water supply increasingly becoming a concern especially at the coast and the central regions, Nehemia faces a daunting task as the head of the state bulk Water Supply Company.

The Windhoek Observer reported in September last year that government has opted to construct its own desalination plant using proceeds from the N$10 billion that it has requested from China.

The long-term move, which is unlikely to bring the much-needed relief to the existing water woes faced by the central region which has started using boreholes as supply dams run dry, is expected to drag further the issue of securing consistent water supplies.

In an exclusive interview, Finance Minister Calle Schlettwein, told the Windhoek Observer then that government will not be buying the Orano-owned desalination plant as earlier suggested and neither will it develop a desalination plant with eastern neighbour, Botswana, which has expressed interest in jointly developing a new plant with Namibia.

“The Botswana project is still in its infancy so we need to consider our own apart from the Botswana one, which will come later,” Schlettwein said.

He said construction of a desalination plant was identified as one of the bulk infrastructure projects that will be funded under the N$10 billion facility from China over five years.

Two months later, NamWater called for bids from companies to submit proposals for financial, technical and legal transaction advisory consultation for the potential acquisition of the Orano Desalination Plant.

The plant has a design capacity of 54 million cubic meters and was commissioned in 2013.  Water from the plant is supplied to mines in the Erongo Region as well as Walvis Bay and Swakopmund.

Nehemia (58), was previously Deputy Permanent Secretary in the Ministry of Agriculture, Water and Forestry and a board member for NamWater for close to three years, will serve a five-year term.

He replaced Vaino Shivute who retired last year.

“I am engaging the staff at the moment. I am having three briefings a day. I will do that for the whole of January,” he said about his new job.

During its 20th anniversary celebrations held in November, NamWater said poor rainfall, increasing urban population, increased economic activities and the economic downturn were part of the problems the company has faced for the last two decades.