Govt urged to do away with anti-investment policies

Corporate governance expert Steve Galloway has urged the government to put effort into improving Namibia’s attractiveness as a mining destination in light of recent oil and gas discoveries, saying the country currently finds itself in an unfavourable position.

Galloway made the comments during a discussion on the role of the private sector in tackling corruption, hosted by the Anti-Corruption Commission.

According to Galloway, in the process of establishing investor-friendly legislation, government needs to ensure that it does not pursue a zero-sum outcome where only one stakeholder is satisfied.

“In the oil and gas sector, now that we have found oil and gas, we have got to be very sure that the environment, that the licensing environment, is at the highest global level, and that we negotiate the resource rents for the benefit of the country,” Galloway said.

“We have to find a middle ground where the investor is happy, and the people are happy, and the state is happy,” he added.

Galloway lamented that Namibia’s decline as an attractive investment destination resulted from policies intended to benefit targeted communities. Instead, they had the opposite effect, placing Namibia in an unfavourable position for investors.

“About 14 years ago, we started somehow bending backwards to give mineral licences, oil and gas licences and fishing licences on much more beneficial terms to selected groups of people, and it might have been well intended, but it had some daily negative fallout,” Galloway said.



Get back on track

Galloway called on the government to seek to address Namibia’s attractiveness as a mining destination, particularly with regard to extractive industries.

“It really reduced Namibia’s competitiveness, the Fraser Institute [ranking] in the mining sector has slipped and slipped and slipped, and we need to set it back on track; in the resource sector, we are assessed as not being competitive.”

Meanwhile, the Chamber of Mines of Namibia recently shared its worry about the country’s ratings as an investment destination following the Fraser Institute’s overall Investment Attractiveness Index for 2023, which places Namibia as the fourth most attractive mining investment destination on the continent.

“While we can be proud that Namibia is still one of Africa’s more favourable destinations, ranking fourth, it is concerning to note that our score has deteriorated by three points on the absolute score and also on our global rankings. This shows that Namibia can do better with regards to mining policy and regulatory matters,” Zebra Kasete, president of Namibia's Chamber of Mines, said.