More than 3,300 workers at 70 UK companies will begin a four-day work week trial from Monday (6 June), in the biggest trial of its kind to date.

Angola’s biggest lender Banco BAI raised 40.1 billion kwanzas ($94 million) from the sale of 10% of its shares in the oil-producing African nation’s first-ever initial public offering.

Namibia Dairies is set to move the production and packaging of its Nammilk Full Cream and Low-Fat Ultra-high temperature (UHT) milk ranges from South Africa to its Avis Factory in Windhoek, as of this month.

The Namibian Ports Authority (Namport) has recorded a 6% growth in total cargo handled, amounting to 6.5 million metric tons for the 2021/2022 financial year.

Nedbank Namibia recently inaugurated its new Head Office located in the Windhoek Central Business District and this is what we know about the building and its construction:

·        Construction of the building started in June 2017.
·        The project was completed on schedule and below budget of N$495 million despite the effects of the COVID pandemic.
·        The building now houses over 500 Nedbank staff that were housed in six different buildings across Windhoek.
·        97% of the total contract was placed on Namibian-owned companies, which was delivered by Namibians.
·        The building has achieved a 5-star Green Star design rating by the Green Building Council of South Africa.
·        The design team has submitted documentation to the Green Building Council to obtain an As Built rating, if obtained, will make it the first newly built 6-star building in the country.

Canadian gold mining firm, Osino Resources, is expecting to inject N$4.6 billion (US$300-million) to kick start its Namibia Twin Hills mining project next year.

Scrutiny of the multi-billion-dollar deal between Heineken NV and Namibian Breweries Limited (NBL) by the Namibia Competition Commission (NaCC) continues over its likely impact on competition in the local beer industry.

Bank of Namibia Governor Johannes !Gawaxab has hinted that another repo rate hike is "likely" when the bank’s Monetary Policy Committee meets on June 15, 2022.

The tourism sector is optimistic about its recovery as data from the Hospitality Association of Namibia (HAN) shows an improvement in national occupancy rates at tourism establishments. 

According to HAN, the national room occupancy was recorded at 36.5% in April this year, relative to 27.0% over the same period last year. 

“This represents two-thirds of pre-pandemic occupancy rates,” said a Rand Merchant Bank (RMB) analysis compiled by FirstRand Namibia Group Economist Ruusa Nandago. 

The national room occupancy rate in April 2019 was 54.7%. 

“Encouragingly, visitors from Europe make up 47% of all rooms occupied – an indication of an increase in foreign tourist activity. The increase in occupancy rates is in line with the return of international airlines and increased flight schedules by most airlines operating in the country,” said the Economist.

In addition to flight schedules of Fly Namibia, Airlink, Eurowings and Qatar Airways, Ethiopian Airlines has increased their weekly flights to Windhoek from 4 to 5 and TAAG increased their weekly Windhoek trips from 2 to 3 from the end of March.

Most visitors came from Germany, Switzerland and Austria (27.9%), South Africa (12.0%), France (3.6%) and Benelux (2.04%) during March 2022.

RMB added that the number of regional and international arrivals has increased, as indicated by the regional and international arrival index, which averaged 130% y/y in 1Q22.

“Barring any further waves of Covid-19 and travel bans, we expect that occupancy rates and tourist activity will continue to recover, with activity returning to pre-pandemic
levels in 2023,” she said. 

A slow recovery in tourism had resulted from Namibia’s low vaccination rates, global travel restrictions and new variant infection outbreaks among others.

Bank of Namibia has forecast a 4.8% growth for this sector in 2022.

Both hotels below and above 30 rooms recorded the highest occupancy rates in March 2022 at 45.3% and 39.1% respectively, followed by bed and breakfast establishments (39.0%), tented camps (28.6%), lodges (23.6%), guest farms (23.4%), guesthouses (19.1%), and rest camps (15.4%).

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