2024: Doing Business in Namibia
Part 1: Doing Business in NAMIBIA
What is the current business climate in your jurisdiction, including major political, economic, and/or legal activities on the horizon in Namibia that could have a big impact on businesses?
Namibia has maintained political stability and a generally positive investment climate. Significant investment has historically gone into the mining, fishing, and tourism sectors. The country is upgrading its transportation infrastructure to facilitate investment and position itself as a logistics hub for road, rail, and sea transportation, connecting neighboring countries to the global marketplace.
Namibia is rich in mineral resources, including diamonds and uranium. With the current global energy crisis, the country is establishing itself as a green hydrogen investment destination. Green hydrogen production is expected to contribute substantially to economic growth, create employment, and foster environmental sustainability by reducing carbon usage.
With respect to regulatory developments, Namibia’s financial services industry has been subject to several changes to foster the stability of the industry, reduce and deter financial crime, and protect consumers of financial services.
From what countries do you see the most inbound investment? What about outbound?
Namibia’s abundant mineral resources, such as diamonds, uranium, zinc, copper, and oil, have attracted the bulk of foreign direct investment, including from South Africa in the diamond mining and banking sectors; China in the uranium mining sector; Canada in gold, zinc, and lithium mining; Spain and Russia in the fishing industry; and the United Kingdom, the United States, and the Netherlands, among others, in oil exploration. Namibia also receives inbound investment from Mauritius and the British Virgin Islands.
In what industries/sectors are you seeing the most opportunity for foreign investment?
Foreign investment opportunities are available in various industries/sectors, including green hydrogen; green energy; agriculture; oil and gas; metals, mining, and associated industries; transportation and logistics; chemicals and basic materials; manufacturing; and tourism.
What advantages and pitfalls should others know about doing business in Namibia?
Namibia promotes foreign investment, and an investment may be fully foreign-owned, although there is an increasing focus on local participation, particularly in the extractive sector. Investments involving the grant of rights over Namibian natural resources are subject to restrictions in that the government may be entitled to, or may acquire, an interest in any enterprise to be formed for the exploitation of such rights.
Despite labor regulations being relatively flexible, the labor market is static, and the workforce is small and not highly skilled. To provide adequate employment opportunities to Namibian nationals, approval by the Ministry of Home Affairs and Immigration is required to issue work permits for foreign nationals in Namibia. Work permits are typically issued for senior management and highly skilled foreign workers who offer specialized or key services or expertise necessary for the operation of the investment.
Commercial contacts are enforced fairly effectively and consistently and the government is working on new business legislation to inter alia improve contract enforcement.
What is one cultural fact or custom about your country that others should know when doing business there?
Business people usually greet one another with a handshake while maintaining eye contact with each other. The corporate structure in Namibia is usually hierarchical, and it would therefore be appropriate to greet business associates in order of seniority.
Part 2: About Your Firm
What distinguishes your firm from others in your market?
With offices in Eastern, Southern and Western Africa, we have deep expertise and the capacity to solve all our client's legal, tax, forensics, and IP requirements and help them navigate regulatory hurdles, no matter where in Africa they do business.
Because we have many years of practical experience working on the ground throughout Africa, we have developed a proven track record and a solid understanding of local cultural, commercial and geopolitical contexts, as well as long-standing partnerships with trusted firms with whom we work.
Our practitioners are qualified to practice English law and French law and we have extensive experience in the legal codes of OHADA used in West and Central Africa.
Our tagline at ENS is 'Original Thinking,' meaning we thrive on ingenuity and producing the best solutions for our clients and their needs.
What are three words that describe the culture of your firm?
Smart, Open-minded, Caring.
How does your firm participate in Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) and/or Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG) initiatives?
We invest thousands of hours every year in a wide variety of pro bono work across the African continent. In South Africa, our efforts are focused on our two permanent pro bono offices—a first for a law firm. These offices are located in areas with difficult living conditions, including high levels of unemployment and numerous challenges.
Our pro bono project has a multipronged approach which consists of the provision of advice and assistance, as well as legal education and skills development, in order to equip community members with knowledge and vital skills, thereby contributing to access to justice and the fostering of entrepreneurship and the growth of sustainable small businesses.
We run annual business management training programmes and courses in human rights and constitutional law, with the aim of empowering leaders and activists with important information which will be shared in their communities.
Are there any new and exciting initiatives, practice areas, or industry focuses in your firm?
We have recently introduced our Public Law practice, showcasing our experience in providing opinion and advisory services, administrative law services relating to the performance of public powers and functions, transactional services relating to public-private partnerships, drafting legislation supporting investigative and reporting work, and conducting judicial reviews of decisions by organs of state and public functionaries.
Our Public Law practice has advised clients from a number of industries, namely banking and finance, basic education, construction, electronic communications, early childhood development, energy, electricity, mining, port services, private and public higher education, transport and logistics, strategic oil reserves, telecommunications, human settlements, media, electoral issues, real estate, prisons, and pharmaceuticals.