President Hage Geingob says the Namibian government is taking into consideration the advice of Botswana President Mokgweetsi Masisi to seek a greater revenue share from diamonds sold to De Beers.
“What my friend from Botswana [Masisi], they had 20%, 25% now, and he says he is going to do more, encouraging me to do that too, so, yes I agree with you, when the resources, and now we have got a sovereign wealth fund, that fund must be populated with our own resources, so that future generations have something, but don’t say we are nationalising things” Geingob said.
Geingob’s said this during his 9th State of the Nation Address in Parliament when he was asked about Namibia’s stake in the mining sector. His answer comes at a time when neighbouring Botswana has threatened to walk away from its 54-year relationship with De Beers if they are not granted more revenue share.
Presidential Spokesperson Alfredo Hengari confirmed on Wednesday to The Brief that Namibia was looking at securing more revenue and share from local diamonds.
“Namibia should get maximum benefit from her resources,” he said.
However, De Beers’ co-chairperson Bruce Cleaver during his visit to Namibia maintained De Beers’ relationship with all its partners was a win-win, despite earlier threats from Botswana that it would pull out of a sales agreement.
“The deal we have in every country is fair to both parties. I am confident our deals all over the world are fair to De Beers and fair to our host countries and allow us to invest in the future,” Cleaver said.
The government and De Beers Group signed a 10-year sales agreement for the sorting, valuing and sales of Namdeb Holdings diamonds. The agreement, which will lapse in 2026, is the longest sales agreement ever signed between the two partners.
The deal saw the government getting an increase in rough diamonds made available for beneficiation, with US$430 million (N$7.92 billion at today currency exchange rate) of rough diamonds being offered annually to Namibia Diamond Trading Company (NDTC) and its customers. Another condition was that all Namdeb Holdings’ Special Stones will be made available for sale in Namibia.
In addition, the agreement provided for a 15% of Namdeb Holdings’ run-of-mine production per annum to be made available to Namib Desert Diamonds Pty Ltd (NAMDIA) which opened in 2016.
NAMDIA was established to trade Namibian rough diamonds directly in the international markets without using middlemen and not through De Beers, as is the case with the rest of the 85% of the diamonds marketed and sold through them.
