Out With the Old for 2026

The government’s public acknowledgement that it had no reliable system to track job creation is hopefully akin to an alcoholic confessing to addiction.

It’s not just about tracking jobs.

National Planning Commission director general Kaire Mbuende in essence pointed out that the government struggles to make decisions based on reliable and coordinated data.

“There is a glaring gap in the transfer and sharing of administrative data generated by various government entities. Without accurate and accessible data, our ability to plan, monitor and evaluate government programmes is severely constrained,” Mbuende said, speaking at the annual general meeting of the Namibia Statistics Agency (NSA) this week.

As an example, Mbuende said he was unable to get information on how many and what types of jobs were created since president Netumbo Nandi-Ndaitwah’s administration took office in March.

For decades, the Namibian government has taken an ostrich’s approach of burying their heads in the sand to avoid knowing about and dealing with danger staring politicians in the face.

Last year, the NSA was complicit in suppressing what little information there was by failing to release job statistics.

When the NSA eventually announced the figures that independent statisticians criticised as “massaged”, it showed a worsening crisis.

The number of people employed had dropped by about 180 000 to under 550 000 in 2023 compared to 2018.

Small wonder that the president has been so exposed as to promise she would create 500 000 jobs during her five-year term (sometimes the promise is reduced to 250 000 without explanation of the huge fluctuation).

Mbuende correctly wants the system to improve drastically so that jobs, agriculture and household income and spending data is gathered and released every three months.

That better be his focus for 2026 if the government genuinely wants to improve the plight of the majority of Namibians, about half of which are now officially found to live in poverty, struggling to gather basics like decent nutritious meals.

The director general will have to start with fixing the NSA, of which the management seems more interested in placating politicians than to deliver (without fear or favour) irrefutable statistics that will help policymakers make informed decisions.

Without regular and accurate information, a president is exposed to appointing incompetent or self-serving (i.e. corrupt) individuals whose lies and failure will not be known for years.

May 2026 usher in an approach of getting rid of old bad habits that harm Namibia’s economy and social development.

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