In The Black gets red light from Namfisa

FINANCIAL regulatory authority Namfisa yesterday released a cautionary notice on In The Black Afcapital, a South African brokerage firm, after it offered two presentations on its services to potential investors in Namibia before the company was locally registered.

The notice states that In The Black is not registered with Namfisa and is therefore ‘not authorised to conduct business in Namibia’. The two presentations took place on April 16 and 17 and were advertised in the Republikein newspaper as well as by direct invitation. The advert features a car racing along a road with the headline ‘just how fast can you go from zero-104%?’It also lists in detail the specific investment areas the company deals with. When approached for comment, George Isaaks of In The Black Afcapital’s local branch said they were ‘busy working on the registration’ and that the company should be registered within the next ‘two to three weeks’.Isaaks said the presentations were held because the company first wanted to ascertain whether there was a demand for its services locally.He said the presentations were the only way to establish whether people are interested, and questioned Namfisa’s handling of the matter. According to him potential investors at the presentations showed ‘a lot of interest’ and the registration is going ahead. But Namfisa spokesperson Ebben Kalondo said as long as the company is not registered locally, people ‘should not engage in any business relationship’ with In The Black as they would have no legal recourse. She said the cautionary notice was put out to protect Namibian consumers as In The Black currently ‘cannot do business in our country’.