If there was one defining feature of July, it was this: almost everything became more expensive.
Within weeks, Namibians were confronted with a wave of price increases that touched nearly every aspect of daily life.
The City of Windhoek approved an average 4% increase in municipal tariffs covering water, sewerage, refuse removal, waste management, rates and taxes.
The Roads Authority announced a 10% increase in vehicle licence fees and a 20% increase in abnormal load and road carrier permit charges.
Government then confirmed a N$2.00 per litre fuel price increase, effective from 5 August, pushing petrol to N$24.48 per litre and diesel above N$26.00 per litre at Walvis Bay.
Then came another blow.
From 1 August, Windhoek residents began receiving fewer electricity units for the same amount of money after the Electricity Control Board approved a 3.7% increase in NamPower’s bulk electricity tariff.
A household spending N$100 on prepaid electricity will now receive about 37.6 units, down from around 39 units previously.
While the regulator argued that the increase is below the current inflation rate of 4.4% and is therefore unlikely to fuel broader inflation, that offers little comfort to households already battling to make every dollar count.
Individually, each increase can be justified. Municipalities point to ageing infrastructure and rising operating costs. The Roads Authority needs funding to maintain the national road network.
Government cites higher international oil prices and the reinstatement of fuel levies. NamPower requires sufficient revenue to sustain electricity supply.
The justification is not the issue.
The problem is that all these increases land on the same Namibian household.
That reality became even more stark after the Namibia Statistics Agency revealed that more than half of Namibia’s working population earns N$2,000 or less per month.
The agency also found that 71% of workers are paid only once a month, meaning a single salary must stretch across rent, food, transport, utilities, school costs and every unexpected expense.
For someone earning N$2,000 a month, July’s announcements were not policy decisions. They were deductions from an already overstretched budget.
The fuel increase will raise transport costs, which in turn push up food prices and the cost of doing business. Higher municipal tariffs will eventually filter through to higher rentals and service charges. Electricity now buys less than it did a month ago.
Increased road charges add further pressure to logistics costs, which ultimately find their way onto supermarket shelves.
No increase exists in isolation.
Every adjustment triggers another.
Yet wages remain largely unchanged.
This exposes a fundamental weakness in Namibia’s economic policymaking. Every institution assesses its own financial sustainability, but few appear to assess the combined impact of these decisions on the people expected to pay for them.
The Roads Authority needs revenue. Municipalities must maintain infrastructure. NamPower has to recover its costs. Government cannot ignore global oil markets.
All of that is true.
But it is equally true that an economy cannot remain healthy if the cost of living consistently rises faster than household incomes.
The NSA’s income data should force a rethink. Before another tariff, levy or fee is approved, policymakers should ask a simple question: What is the cumulative impact on the average Namibian worker?
July should not be remembered simply as the month of price increases.
It should be remembered as the month that exposed the widening gap between what Namibians earn and what it now costs to live.
Until that gap is addressed, every new increase, however justified, will make it harder for working Namibians to stay afloat.
*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.
