About The South Africanisation of Namibian industries

I WAS glad when the central bank blocked the sale of a controlling stake in Namibian financial services firm, Capricorn Investment Holdings, to Absa.

Capricorn Investment Holdings has a 72 percent shareholding in Bank Windhoek and the deal would have resulted in Bank Windhoek losing its status as the only wholly Namibian-owned bank.
Absa is majority-owned by Britain’s Barclays.
The same group of people sold their 34,4 per cent stake in Bank Windhoek to CIH four years ago.
So why would they now suddenly want to buy back not only their shares but aim for a majority stake? It clearly shows that something good is happening at Bank Windhoek. Also Absa wants an easy entrance back into the Namibian economy.
Bank of Namibia Governor Ipumbu Shiimi said the merger, if approved, would have pushed foreign shareholding in the local banking sector up from 65 per cent to nearly 80 per cent.
But not only that. He also spoke about a “single-country risk”, meaning that we tend to rely too much on the South African (SA) economy.
Of course there would have been some benefits to clients like getting access to certain credit cards but these would have been minimal in the long run.
Absa’s attempt to take over Bank Windhoek is but one example of how Namibia’s economy continues to be run from Pretoria, 20 years after the country’s Independence.
There are three other commercial banks: Standard Bank, First National Bank and Nedbank in Namibia, and all three are basically run from there.
They have to report to SA, almost on a daily basis, on how much they have made, the products they have sold and also get approval from head office on many aspects of their operations.
Their systems are run from SA and they pay millions in so-called ‘management fees’ to their bosses on the other side of the Orange River.
Above all, some of these banks pay no less than N$50 million to SA at the end of each financial year.
That is very disempowering to their staff, many of whom who spend hours in front of ageing computers.
I have seen some staff helplessly trying to explain certain things to frustrated clients. That because Namibia is just too small and their bosses in SA do not take their clients across the border seriously.
Apart from the banks, another example is the mushrooming of SA retail chains in Namibia.
The majority of them, in large shopping malls, are SA-based and Namibians hardly have a chance to enter certain retail markets.
I am neither xenophobic, nor anti-SA.
I just feel that we need to go the extra mile as a country, not only to take ownership of our economy but also to rid ourselves of SA’s paternalistic ruling.
It is interesting to note that when the Absa deal was rejected by the central bank some people in the industry were shocked because they believed that Namibian banks “need a big brother”.
As a consumer and a Namibian, I have had enough of a ‘big brother’ who does not care about me but is only interested in taking my money.
Maybe it is time for Namibian businessmen and women to step up to the challenge of Namibianising the economy instead of getting rid of their shares at Bank Windhoek and others just for the sake of a quick buck.
Surely, if Edgars, Pick ‘n Pay or any other SA retailer pack up, somebody must be there to supply to the market.

* This column first appeared in The Namibian