Windhoek Observer

Martin Endjala Namibia is currently experiencing a more rapid slowdown in annual inflation than anticipated. This was said on Tuesday by an economic researcher at Simonis Storm Securities, Halleluya Ndimulunde who was responding to the recently released economic outlook report, stating that this marks a deceleration from the 7.2% recorded in March 2023 and 5.0% in February 2024. In March 2024 the country saw an annual inflation rate of 4.5%, the lowest since July 2023. “Monthly inflation remained unchanged, consistent with the rate reported in the previous month (0.0 %). The primary contributor to headline inflation remains the food and…

Martin Endjala The trade volumes between Namibia and China will be U$1.3 billion in 2023, with a year-on-year growth of 16.5 percent. This was revealed by the Chargé d’Affaires of the Chinese Embassy Shen Jian, at the promotion conference of the Seventh China International Import Expo (CIIE) and Hongqiao International Economic Forum held in Windhoek on Tuesday. According to Jian, China has been the second-largest trading partner of Namibia for many years. “China welcomes more Namibian products to enter the Chinese market, and the two governments are currently negotiating on the export of Namibia’s deep-sea red crab, abalone, mutton, grape,…

Niël Terblanché An act of desperation led to the arrest of eight farmers from Gobabis who took matters into their own hands by occupying a government-owned farm near Gobabis in the Omaheke Region on Saturday. The group, along with their livestock, set up residence at the Witsand farm, which has reportedly been unused for more than three years. This action led to their arrest for trespassing by the Namibian Police on Tuesday. The farmers, frustrated by a lack of grazing land and what they perceive as inaction on the part of authorities, erected shacks and offloaded more than 300 of…

Stefanus Nashama Bank BIC Namibia clients are reportedly unable to perform electronic banking or withdraw their funds at the Automatic Teller Machines (ATM), instead, they have to negotiate with the bank to access their cash. Martin Lukas, a client of the bank, explained that bank officials told him that the system was hacked. “All they told us is that the system was hacked but no official communication was made to us. We have been forced to go inside since the beginning of March,” he said. Clients raised their concerns due to a lack of communication from the bank. Some customers…

Niël Terblanché The Namibian Government has embarked on a determined initiative to gather citizens' perspectives on the performance of its Offices, Ministries, and Agencies (OMAs), Regional Councils (RCs), and State-owned Enterprises (SOEs). Under the guidance of Prime Minister Saara Kuugongelwa-Amadhila, the Citizen Satisfaction Survey (CSS) campaign, a collaboration with the University of Namibia, came to an end over the past weekend. The campaign covered all fourteen regions of the country. The CSS campaign sought to involve citizens in a participatory approach to governance. By condensing the public's view on various governmental bodies' effectiveness, the Office of the Prime Minister aims…