Following a decrease of one percent in the bank rate last week by the Bank of Namibia, Standard and First national bank have already followed suit. Commercial Bank of Namibia on Tuesday also decreased its prime-lending rate coming into effect next month. The prime lending rate will decrease by 1% from 15.5 to 14.5% as from 1 October 2003. Wholesale and retail investment rates will be adjusted accordingly. Good news are in stall for home owners as well, as the bank will decrease the home loan rate by 1% to 13.5%, effective from 1 October 2003 That makes the Commercial Bank of Namibia’s home loan rate the lowest in the country.

Diamond mining contributed N$ 2,99 billion or 9.8 percent to Namibia’s gross domestic product (GDP) last year. Tax and non–tax revenues earned last year came to N$ 1.49 billion or 14.5% in 2002/03 and will increase to N$ 1.64 billion or almost 13.6 % of government income in this financial year. Although such figures were impressive, this made the public finances increasingly dependent on the fortunes of one single industry, the Institute for Public Policy Research claims. Analysing the IPPR’s latest briefing paper, this time looking into the diamond industry, Mr Robin Sherbourne, the institute’s director, told journalists on Monday that on the other hand, the Namibian government made big efforts to diversify its economy. Presently the government had a 50% stake in the largest and dominant diamond company, Namdeb, but now a second role player came on the scene, Russian-Israeli Lev Leviev, who bought shares into the liquidated Namco company. The Leviev Group had major diamond cutting and marketing subsidiaries in the world, but held a mining licence only in Namibia. The Israeli company wanted to set up a diamond cutting and polishing factory, Semicor, in April 2004, eventually increasing staff to 500 in the third year of operation, Sherbourne said, who compiled the analysis with Martin Boer. The Namibian government being so closely tied to one dominant diamond company could lead to problems and conflicts of interest, the IPPR director said. With a second player entering the ring, it remained to be seen if the government would equally take a big stake in Semicor, as happened with Namdeb.

The N$ 3.2 billion investment by Anglo American into the Skorpion Zinc mine near Rosh Pinah had it official inauguration last Friday. Quite a number of top government officials and industrial leaders were unhappy because they were not invited. Some of them just pitched up and apparently gave the staff handling the inauguration ceremony a difficult task, having to handle the unexpected larger numbers. Questions were also raised by some guests why the catering was done from South Africa and did not include Namibian contractors. Apart from that the company will produce 150 000 t of zinc ore per annum, when in full production. Namzinc, the second company manages the processing plant and buys the prepared ore form Skorpion Mining. Both are registered under AngloBase Namibia. The mining life is estimated at 15 years. What will then happen to Rosh Pinah and the many houses built for the employees remains to be seen. The new mine, which uses 88 mega watt of electricity, one third of the total national consumption, is to contribute 4 % to the gross domestic product of Namibia. The ore ingots weigh 25 kg each and are stacked into 1 tonne bundles and trucked to Lüderitz, loaded on ships and exported through the port.

A recent study reports on mass perceptions on corruption in Namibia. In
doing so, it draws on public opinion data from recent rounds of the
Afro barometer Survey (1999 and 2002). The study completed by the Institute for Public Policy Research (IPPR) shows that although the current
level of corruption in Namibia is perceived to be quite high, actual experiences of corruption are much lower. Secondly, the paper explores the links
between public perceptions on corruption and general political attitudes
such as political trust; government legitimacy, responsiveness and
performance; service delivery; and support for democracy. Finally, the
paper uses these links to explain public perceptions on corruption,
using a multivariate regression model. This latest IPPR Briefing Paper (No 19) was compiled by Christiaan Keulder and Tania Wiese.