Govt not sole funder of NDP5 – Alweendo
ECONOMIC planning minister Tom Alweendo on Friday said government is not going to fund the whole of the recently launched fifth National Development Plan. Alweendo made this statement at a panel discussion of the plan held at a Windhoek hotel. The discussion was organised by the Economic Association of Namibia and Bank Windhoek and was […]
Too Poor to Own Land
North Central Namibia is interesting, and exciting for so many reasons. For me the best is driving through the informal clusters of small colourful cuca shops, flats, brick-makers, restaurants, tailors and more. While not perfect, tenure arrangements allow people to create these clusters of enterprise. Traders have enough security and confidence to build their businesses. […]
The Drawbacks of a Narrow Tax Base
Most people recognise that taxes are needed to pay for public services. However, few people realise that the sources of taxation, especially personal income tax, emanates from a small minority. The fact that many countries, including Namibia and South Africa, have such a narrow tax base is as a direct result of the great income […]
Rightsizing the public sector – Klaus Schade
Personnel expenditure has increased from 39.7 percent of the total budget in the 2016/17 financial year to 44.9 percent in the current financial year. If we had frozen salaries at last year’s level, the wage bill would have dropped to 39.1 percent of the total budget and some NAD3.6 billion could have been used to […]
Bush encroachment – Turning a problem into an industry – by Dagmar Honsbein and Colin Lindeque
Bush encroachment in Namibia is defined as the densification and rapid spread of native bush and shrub species, resulting in an imbalance of biodiversity. In addition to native species, invasion of exotic tree or shrub species such as Prosopis also pose a threat. This bush encroachment phenomenon is said to be caused by a number […]
Junk Status Looms Again
Klaus Schade gave his view on the possibility of Namibia facing a ratings downgrade, fresh off the back of events in South Africa, in the Namibian Sun of Wednesday, 05 April 2017.
Joblessness bites deep
Klaus Schade gave his contribution on the current cascading unemployment situation in the country in The Namibian Sun Newspaper of Friday 7th April 2017.
Trophy Hunting in Namiba – By Catherine Birch
Trophy hunting is always a polarising topic but opposition has been mounting over recent years. Cecil the Lion, the media (in particular the use of social media by animal rights activists), and celebrities have stirred public opinion, much of it negative. This has arguably contributed to the introduction of airline bans on transporting trophies, the […]
Railway sector needs a Vision – Klaus Schade
Namibia aims at becoming the logistics hub for southern Africa. This ambition was first articulated in the Fourth National Development Plan (NDP4), followed up in the Harambee Prosperity Plan and the soon to be released NDP5. Consequently, government invested heavily in transport infrastructure: the expansion of the Walvis Bay harbour is nearing completion increasing the […]
The Namibian Balance of Payments, Foreign Exchange Reserves and the currency peg – By Rowland Brown
As a small open economy, Namibia’s balance of payments is arguably the single most important indicator of the health of the local economy. This is particularly true of Namibia, where a currency peg and twin deficits (current account and fiscal) present a form of “impossible trinity” if continued in perpetuity. In this vein, should a […]