The Minister of Industrialisation and Trade (MIT) Lucia Iipumbu says there’s a need to come up with modern business laws critical for Namibia’s economic growth.
Analysts assert that Namibia’s business laws are out-of-date and non-responsive to the current needs of the economy. This has resulted in the Business and Intellectual Property Authority (BIPA), together with MIT, working to reform the legislative framework for business entities in Namibia.
Minister Iipumbu noted that Namibia has not done well on the ease of doing business ranking because of a number of issues, including the length of time it takes to establish a firm.
Iipumbu argues that registering a business with BIPA takes between seven and 14 days, but this process has been slashed to less than 24 hours in places like South Africa, Botswana, and Rwanda.
“The Ministry of Industrialisation and Trade together with its various stakeholders and partners have done various assessments of the Namibian economy and have engaged the business fraternity at length over the past 3-4 years. It is my belief that we are ad idem on the fact that the business and investment sector require a push in the right direction in order to yield the required results for a prosperous economic trajectory now and in the future,” she said.
However, she added, this will not be possible if the government does not get the fundamental basics such as the construction of a robust legal and regulatory framework that allows for guidelines on the conduct of business in Namibia.
BIPA is currently hosting an International Roundtable Consultative Forum under the theme “Namibian Corporate Laws for a Competitive, Trend-setting and Prosperous Economy”, taking place from 6-11 February 2023 at Avani Hotel in Windhoek.
The forum is aimed at bringing together local and international expert stakeholders from various fields including company and commercial law, tax and insolvency law, corporate governance, financial intelligence, economics and others to relook at the laws guiding the business fraternity in the country.
Tshepo Mongalo, a South African Professor in Law has been appointed as the lead consultant for the reform project.
He currently serves as the Associate Professor in Commercial Law at the University of Witwatersrand (WITS).
Mongalo also served as Deputy Chair of the Specialist Committee on Company Law in South Africa and was instrumental in the review and subsequent amendment of the 2008 South African Companies Act.
He will be assisted by expert consultants from the United States and the UK. The experts have a wealth of experience specialising in mergers and acquisitions, securities and corporate transactions, capital markets and private equity, and corporate law, amongst others.
The current laws regulating business registration and conduct, administered by BIPA includes the Companies Act, 2004 (Act No. 26 of 2004) and the Close Corporations Act, 1988 (Act No. 28 of 1988).
“The reform of our laws are premised on the wish to create a more modernised, responsive and simplified legal framework for the formalisation and conduct of business entities in Namibia. The reform is further aimed at improving the ease of doing business in the country and the level of competitiveness,” says BIPA CEO Vivienne Katjiuongua.
Once enacted, she said, the new law will promote transparency and a culture of sound corporate governance, allow for the use and application of new technologies to facilitate transactions and interactions with the Authority, and improve the ease of attracting foreign direct investment for economic growth.
Katjiuongua further noted that “key amendments include the addition of a chapter on Business Rescue, as per the recommendations of the Business Rescue Task Force appointed by His Excellency, the President in 2021.
Another key consideration for inclusion is that of a Beneficial Ownership Register (BO). This is to ensure BIPA collects data on the actual beneficiaries of businesses and to root our conduct related to Anti-Money Laundering (AML), Counter Terrorism Financing (CTF) and Counter Proliferation Financing (CPF)”.
The review process includes countrywide stakeholder consultations and further engagement with local experts, before the draft bill can be presented to Cabinet and Parliament towards the later part of 2023.
