Billions in profit, and the critics circle. Namibia’s banks report strong earnings, and they are swiftly blamed for household debt. Social media obliges with outrage. It is an easy target — and a lazy one.
Profit is not a windfall squeezed out of the poor. It is what remains after absorbing defaults, setting aside provisions, and meeting capital requirements. Most of all, it is profit after tax. The banking sector contributes hundreds of millions annually to the Treasury in corporate tax, and distributes hundreds of millions more in dividends — income that flows directly into pension funds and unit trusts relied upon by ordinary Namibians.
To suggest that profits disappear into offshore vaults reflects either a misunderstanding or a deliberate misrepresentation.
Debt, too, is misrepresented. Banks do not manufacture over-indebtedness; households borrow because wages stagnate while food, fuel and utilities climb. Without a national framework for debt literacy or income growth, arrears will rise regardless of bank earnings. Instead of denouncing banks, it is time to confront the harder truth of stagnant wages and weak fiscal discipline.
The most reckless proposal raised so far is a cap on interest rates. It will not rescue the indebted. It will ration credit. Those with strong collateral will still borrow, while small businesses needing start-up capital will be cut out. Into that gap step informal lenders, charging triple with no protection. The very loan-shark economy so often condemned will, in fact, have been created.
What makes the criticism thinner is its lack of evidence. No case studies, no benchmarks, no comparative data — only slogans. Not one detractor has shown how Namibian banks differ from peers in the region, or explained why margins here should be lower in a high-risk economy. This is not policy. It is theatre.
Scrutiny is fair. Vilification is not. Profits are not theft; they underpin credit supply, retirement income and tax revenue. Undermine them with populist fixes and the cost will fall on the same households said to be defended.
Briefly is a weekly column that is opinionated and analytical. It sifts through the noise to make sense of the numbers, trends and headlines shaping business and the economy with insight, wit and just enough scepticism to keep things interesting. THE VIEWS EXPRESSED ARE NOT OUR OWN, we simply relay them as part of the conversation.
