Observer Money

Staff Writer  Namibia’s N$8.5 billion development budget, revenue collection and government liquidity are expected to come under scrutiny when the minister of finance tables the 2026/2027 Mid-Year Budget Review on Thursday.  In a series of posts on its Facebook page, Deloitte Namibia expects the review to provide updates on budget implementation, revenue performance and measures to strengthen government collections, while also clarifying funding for efforts to contain the foot-and-mouth disease outbreak affecting the livestock sector. Gerda Brand, director of Namibia tax at Deloitte Namibia, said the review would assess budget implementation alongside final fiscal indicators for the financial year ended…

CHAMWE KAIRA South Africa’s National Treasury has reduced its planned fixed-rate and inflation-linked bond auction amounts by a combined R700 million following the tabling of the 2026 Medium-Term Budget Framework. The treasury announced that the competitive fixed-rate bond amount will decrease by R600 million to R1.95 billion, while the inflation-linked bond amount will be reduced by R100 million to R900 million. The changes will take effect from the fixed-rate bond auction scheduled for 3 November 2026, settling on 9 November, and the inflation-linked bond auction scheduled for 30 October 2026, settling on 5 November. The treasury said the non-competitive fixed-rate…

CHAMWE KAIRA De Beers has raised its 2026 production guidance to between 25 million and 28 million carats, from a previous forecast of 21 million to 26 million carats, as rough diamond trading conditions show signs of stabilising. The company said in the production report for the third quarter ended 30 September 2026 that the revised outlook reflects it assuming full ownership of the Gahcho Kue mine, while it continues to monitor market conditions and align output with prevailing demand. Rough diamond sales reached 9.8 million carats in the third quarter of 2026, including 8.7 million carats on a consolidated…

Staff Writer  FNB Namibia and DHL Namibia have signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) to establish a strategic partnership focused on supporting and empowering Namibian small and medium enterprises (SMEs).  The partnership brings together DHL's logistics expertise, market access and SME incubation programmes with FNB's financing solutions, financial literacy initiatives and business advisory support. Through the partnership, SMEs participating in DHL Namibia's GoTrade programme will benefit from a comprehensive support ecosystem designed to help businesses overcome barriers to international trade through training, mentorship, logistics support and access to global markets. By combining DHL's trade expertise with FNB Namibia's financial solutions…

Staff Writer  Green Metals Refining Ltd has secured environmental clearance for its planned manganese refinery and sulphuric acid plant at Farm 58 in Walvis Bay, paving the way for further project development. The ministry of environment, forestry and tourism (MEFT) approved the Environmental Clearance Certificate (ECC) early in October following a review of the projects’ Environmental Impact Assessment and Environmental Management Plan, the company announced on 14 October. The approval is a key step towards preparing the projects for construction and reaching a Final Investment Decision (FID), although it does not mean construction has started. Green Metals Refining (GMR), a…

LYNN-MARI VALENTIN  With cybersecurity now a firm focus for company leaders, businesses have historically focused their cybersecurity efforts on protecting their own systems. Strong passwords, employee awareness training, multi-factor authentication and regular software updates are widely recognised as core components of a responsible cyber strategy. But as cyber threats evolve, even businesses with strong internal controls can be exposed through the third parties on which they depend. Instead, the next cyber incident could originate from one of the many third parties that companies rely on every day. Increased dependence on outsourced systems leaves businesses vulnerable.  From cloud storage providers and…

MANFRIED KAANJOSA Death reveals what money has been quietly hiding. In southern Africa, the death of a family member is rarely a private event. It involves extended family, community obligations, expectations about how the funeral should be conducted, and costs that accumulate faster than most families anticipate. Transport. Catering. A burial site. The logistics of bringing people together from different towns and regions. And underneath all of that is a question that nobody wants to ask out loud but that someone eventually has to: who is paying for this? When there is no plan, that question does not get answered…

Dickson Matengu Most of us will never read an Act of Parliament cover to cover. Yet every Act of Parliament is binding on all and directly or indirectly affects us. The Financial Institutions and Markets Act, commonly known as “FIMA”, was promulgated in October 2021. Since its promulgation, most of the debate about FIMA centred on draft regulation on compulsory preservation of retirement benefits. Far less has been said about Chapter 5 of FIMA, which primarily governs the retirement fund industry. In fact, almost nothing has been said about the distribution of pension death benefits. FIMA came into force on…

CHAMWE KAIRA Namibia’s quarterly diamond production declined to 495 000 carats in the quarter ending 30 September compared to 531 000, De Beers production figures showed.  De Beers Group’s latest production report shows that Namibia produced 1.58 million carats between January and September, down 3% from 1.62 million carats in the same period of 2025. Debmarine Namibia produced 366 000 carats during the quarter, an increase of 21% from 303 000 carats in the third quarter of 2025. However, its output declined slightly from 370 000 carats in the preceding quarter. For the first nine months, Debmarine produced 1.09 million…

CHAMWE KAIRA The country’s national room occupancy rate reached 66.49% in the third quarter of 2026, surpassing both the same period last year and the pre-pandemic level recorded in 2019, according to first-draft figures from the Hospitality Association of Namibia (HAN). The occupancy rate was 1.18 percentage points higher than the 65.31% recorded in the third quarter of 2025 and 1.75 percentage points above the 64.74% recorded in the third quarter of 2019. Bed occupancy also improved, reaching 58.86% in the quarter, compared with 57.17% in 2025 and 55.13% in 2019. However, September room occupancy declined to 66.33%, from 67.37%…