IPC calls for transparent beneficial ownership after removal from greylist
The Independent Patriots for Change says Namibia must make beneficial ownership information public to keep the country in line with international standards.
This statement comes after the Ministry of Finance on Friday announced that Namibia has exited the greylist of countries under the Financial Action Task Force’s increased monitoring.
“Two of the 13 weaknesses Namibia just corrected were gaps in beneficial ownership transparency and the failure to prosecute money laundering,” shadow minister of international relations and trade Rodney Cloete says in a statement released on Saturday.
Beneficial ownership reflects who really owns and controls a company.
This information is collected by the Business and Intellectual Property Authority (Bipa).
Cloete says information about companies’ owners must be made readily available, especially regarding petroleum, mining, and procurement.
“The win [the exit from the greylist] is already at risk. We are reliably informed that even journalists cannot, in practice, obtain beneficial ownership information from Bipa, where access to the register is effectively closed.
“A register that foreign assessors can tick but the Namibian press and public cannot search is not the win our country was promised,” Cloete says.
He calls on the minister of finance to publish the verified beneficial owners of all petroleum licence holders in Namibia, and subsequently for Bipa to open practical access to the beneficial ownership register to the public.
Cloete says his party welcomes Namibia’s removal from the greylist.
“Greylisting raised the cost of every cross-border payment a Namibian makes.
“The International Monetary Fund estimates it cuts foreign capital inflows by as much as 7.6% of gross domestic product.
“Therefore, this lifts a real weight off the importer, the trader, and the family receiving money from abroad,” he says.
Cloete, however, says the Financial Action Task Force (FATF) only certified that the necessary frameworks and laws are in place, not that they will be used to stop money laundering.
Namibia was put on the greylist in February 2024 over 13 issues related to money laundering and combatting the financing of terrorism.
The FATF conducted an onsite assessment in April and announced on Friday that the country would be removed from the greylist.
