2019 Business in retrospect
By Hilary Mare
THE year 2019 has been one of the most eventful years on the business landscape and produced many headlines and stories with both positive and negative bearing on the economic landscape. Here are some of the headlines that appeared in the Confidente business section in 2019.
AfCFTA secures 22 ratifications
Last year the Continental Free Trade Area (CFTA) -a US$3 trillion continental free-trade zone encompassing 1.2 billion people -was given a green light by African leaders at a special African Union summit in Kigali, Rwanda.
Needing 22 ratifications to come into force, the agreement has successfully received these timely ratifications, Confidente can confirm.
The Chairperson of the AU Commission, Moussa Faki Mahamat together with the AU Commissioner for Trade and Industry, Albert Muchanga, received two (2) deposits of instruments of ratification of the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA) Agreement on the29th April 2019
DBN has created 56 000 jobs
Deputy Director and Economic Adviser to the Minister of Finance, Penda Ithindi has revealed that the Development Bank of Namibia (DBN) is a key agency in developing Namibia that has supported the creation of 24,000 new jobs and 32,000 temporary jobs since 2004.
Speaking at the recently held DBN Good Business and Innovation Awards, Ithindi also said that DBN has also approved N$15 billion development finance for infrastructure and enterprise activities over the 15 years of its existence.
Debmarine paid N$2.8b to Govt
The Government received N$2.4 billion as royalties and corporate tax, and as a 50% shareholder it also received N$350 million in dividends, Debmarine Namibia Chief Executive Officer, Otto Shikongo told delegates at the recently concluded 2019 mining expo.
Over a four year period, from 2014 to 2018, Shikongo also revealed that the company has directly contributed N$16.4 billion to the Namibian economy.
HKIA expansion targets Sept 2020 completion
The Hosea Kutako International Airport Congestion Alleviation project that will kick off on 23 September is expected to be completed by end of September 2020.
The project will focus on expanding the airport terminal building infrastructure to the value of N$ 250 Million.
Schlettwein rebuts FIM Bill concerns
Finance Minister Calle Schlettwein has diffused concerns around the adequacy of the stakeholder consultation process in the formulation of the Financial Institutions and Markets (FIM) Bill, revealing that considerable consultations, spanning a period of about ten years, had been undertaken.
Re-tabling the Bill in Parliament last week, Schlettwein also highlighted that some of the latest drafting inputs which are inconsistent with the draft Bill and policy rationale will be considered for floor amendments during the discussion stage of the Bill.
Trustco’s Meya in N$351m diamond sales
Meya Mining, – a Mauritian mining company and a 51 percent held subsidiary of Trustco – has to date amassed total revenue of USD 24,490,420 (approximately N$351 million) from the sale of 27,776.10.
The average value per carat is thus USD 881.71 (approximately N$12 686).
This was revealed in a Stock Exchanged News Service (SENS) update issued by Amanda Bruyns, Company Secretary of the Trustco Group last week where she also highlighted that Meya Mining exported 3,036.11 carats on the 21st January 2019 and 1,097.33 carats on 14th February 2019 from Sierra Leone to Antwerp.
Meatco enters Chinese market
Meatco Namibia has officially dispatched its first consignment destined for Chinese shores last week, becoming the first African state to do so.
In his keynote address at the launch of the beef exports to China by Meatco last week, Minister of Agriculture, Water and Forestry, Honourable Alpheus G. !Naruseb, praised key role players in the industry such as Meatco, who used this memorandum of understanding opportunity and enabled the country to be the first African country to export beef to China.