Poor Namibia, Millionaire’s Paradise

“We are too few to be poor,” has become president Netumbo Nandi-Ndaitwah’s standard complaint, stating the obvious.

What’s less clear is what will be done to structurally reduce the ever-growing number of poor Namibians, especially as the number of US-dollar millionaires continues to increase. The latest Africa Wealth Report shows that the number of Namibian millionaires has grown by more than 30%, up to 2 500 since 2013.

In stark contrast, the number of employed Namibians dropped to 547 000 in 2023, compared to 726 000 in the previous five years.

That’s despite the labour force growing. In fact, more than 340 000 people have given up hope to the extent that they no longer bother to look for a job – up from 185 000 in 2018.

The surge in the number of millionaires seems to suggest money pouring into Namibia, but with fewer people benefiting.

While there is no readily available data to show that the government’s ‘empowerment’ policies are causing the widening wealth gap, it’s obvious that dishing out public resources, such as farmland, fishing and mining licences, to a politically connected few is making matters worse.

In the less than five years since the Fishrot corruption scandal went viral, the government has managed to collect more than N$1 billion from less than 5% of its experimental auction of fishing quotas.

On the other hand, fishing companies persistently fail to contribute to taxpayer funds – the government is getting as little as N$100 million a year in licence fees and levies from a N$20-billion sector.

New fisheries minister Inge Zaamwani-Kamwi has correctly complained that the fishing industry is not paying its fair due taxes to the government coffers.

The state can forget about the fishing companies, and to a less obvious extent the mining sector, generating the needed revenue for tax coffers amid the current ‘empowerment’ policies for so-called ‘previously disadvantaged Namibians’.

The empowerment policies were meant to spawn a small class of super rich black Namibians.

What has not been articulated is that the enrichment was bound to come at the expense of the majority, because the few have hijacked our public resources.

Unless this is addressed with due resolve, Namibia will remain a paradox: a poor nation being a paradise for a tiny rich group.

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