Geingob’s top economic team exits – did they deliver?
Reflections
Johannes !Gawaxab and Nangula Uaandja will both leave office at the end of the month, drawing the curtain on a quiet but powerful chapter in Namibia’s recent economic history.
Their departures signal more than routine leadership changes. They mark the fading presence of the technocratic core that once formed the intellectual backbone of the late former president Hage Geingob’s economic recovery agenda.
Both !Gawaxab and Uaandja were central figures on the high-level economic panel appointed by Geingob in 2019 – a panel born from his 2018 pledge to establish a presidential economic advisory council to help steer the country out of stagnation.
As the figures Geingob once entrusted to conceive, design and implement economic recovery now depart, Namibia confronts an unavoidable question: did the team empowered by the country’s top leader to wield economic influence deliver real changes that improved the lives of ordinary Namibians?
!Gawaxab chaired the high-level panel and quickly emerged as one of Geingob’s most influential economic thinkers.
In June 2020, he officially assumed office as governor of the Bank of Namibia, initially on an 18-month term. His mandate was later extended, and he was reappointed for a full five-year term from 1 January 2022 – a term that was supposed to run until January 2027.
Instead, he is stepping down earlier, bringing to a close a tenure that coincided with some of Namibia’s most difficult economic moments.
Similar path
Serving as !Gawaxab’s deputy on the panel was Nangula Uaandja. Her rise followed a similar trajectory from adviser to executive authority.
Uaandja subsequently became the founding chief executive officer of the Namibia Investment Promotion and Development Board (NIPDB), an institution created directly on the panel’s recommendation.
Under Geingob, the NIPDB reported directly to State House and operated as an autonomous body, reflecting the former president’s belief that investment promotion needs insulation from bureaucratic inertia.
That changed under the new administration, when the NIPDB was placed under the trade ministry.
On Thursday, the board announced that Uaandja would also bow out at the end of December.
Another prominent panel member, James Mnyupe, exited earlier than his counterparts.
After about a year on the panel, he was appointed Geingob’s presidential economic adviser, a role that placed him at the centre of financial decision-making.
He later became Namibia’s green hydrogen commissioner, again reporting directly to Geingob. Like Uaandja, his authority flowed from the Presidency rather than a line ministry.
Mnyupe has since also left that role.
Viewed together, these departures tell a coherent story. Geingob did not simply convene a panel to advise him. He elevated its members into positions of real power, expecting ideas to move swiftly from institutions into outcomes.
The former head of state gave these technocrats proximity to power, political cover and the authority to act.
A more complex question
That is why the focus should not rest on Geingob himself. He kept his promise. He created the panel. He trusted and empowered its members. The more complex question – the one that now hangs in the air – is whether those given the jobs delivered what the country needed.
Under !Gawaxab, the Bank of Namibia remained stable through the Covid-19 shock, global inflation and tightening monetary conditions. Institutional credibility was preserved, and the financial system was held. But for many Namibians, stability did not translate into opportunity.
Unemployment, particularly among the youth, remained stubbornly high. Living costs rose faster than incomes. Poverty and informality deepened.
Uaandja’s NIPDB was billed as a game-changer: a one-stop investment body designed to unlock capital, cut red tape and drive industrialisation.
Yet investment outcomes remained uneven and the promised wave of transformative projects has been slow to materialise.
Mnyupe’s green hydrogen drive positioned Namibia boldly on the global energy map, but its benefits remain largely in the future, still far removed from households struggling to meet daily needs.
None of this ignores the context in which they served. Covid-19 disrupted economies everywhere. Fiscal space was tight.
Structural problems were inherited. But leadership is ultimately measured by translation – by whether ideas move beyond policy boardrooms and into people’s lives.
As Geingob’s economic chosen thinkers now leave the stage, Namibia is left with reflection rather than accusation.
Did the country feel the work of its brightest technocrats? Did economic expertise translate into dignity, jobs and opportunity for the majority? Or did too much remain confined to strategy documents, institutions and elite conversations?
Geingob believed deeply in expertise. He believed Namibia could think its way out of a crisis. The people he appointed were given the platform to prove that belief right.
Their departure now shifts the burden of judgement to the only place it truly belongs: the lived experience of ordinary Namibians.
Their departures signal more than routine leadership changes. They mark the fading presence of the technocratic core that once formed the intellectual backbone of the late former president Hage Geingob’s economic recovery agenda.
Both !Gawaxab and Uaandja were central figures on the high-level economic panel appointed by Geingob in 2019 – a panel born from his 2018 pledge to establish a presidential economic advisory council to help steer the country out of stagnation.
As the figures Geingob once entrusted to conceive, design and implement economic recovery now depart, Namibia confronts an unavoidable question: did the team empowered by the country’s top leader to wield economic influence deliver real changes that improved the lives of ordinary Namibians?
!Gawaxab chaired the high-level panel and quickly emerged as one of Geingob’s most influential economic thinkers.
In June 2020, he officially assumed office as governor of the Bank of Namibia, initially on an 18-month term. His mandate was later extended, and he was reappointed for a full five-year term from 1 January 2022 – a term that was supposed to run until January 2027.
Instead, he is stepping down earlier, bringing to a close a tenure that coincided with some of Namibia’s most difficult economic moments.
Similar path
Serving as !Gawaxab’s deputy on the panel was Nangula Uaandja. Her rise followed a similar trajectory from adviser to executive authority.
Uaandja subsequently became the founding chief executive officer of the Namibia Investment Promotion and Development Board (NIPDB), an institution created directly on the panel’s recommendation.
Under Geingob, the NIPDB reported directly to State House and operated as an autonomous body, reflecting the former president’s belief that investment promotion needs insulation from bureaucratic inertia.
That changed under the new administration, when the NIPDB was placed under the trade ministry.
On Thursday, the board announced that Uaandja would also bow out at the end of December.
Another prominent panel member, James Mnyupe, exited earlier than his counterparts.
After about a year on the panel, he was appointed Geingob’s presidential economic adviser, a role that placed him at the centre of financial decision-making.
He later became Namibia’s green hydrogen commissioner, again reporting directly to Geingob. Like Uaandja, his authority flowed from the Presidency rather than a line ministry.
Mnyupe has since also left that role.
Viewed together, these departures tell a coherent story. Geingob did not simply convene a panel to advise him. He elevated its members into positions of real power, expecting ideas to move swiftly from institutions into outcomes.
The former head of state gave these technocrats proximity to power, political cover and the authority to act.
A more complex question
That is why the focus should not rest on Geingob himself. He kept his promise. He created the panel. He trusted and empowered its members. The more complex question – the one that now hangs in the air – is whether those given the jobs delivered what the country needed.
Under !Gawaxab, the Bank of Namibia remained stable through the Covid-19 shock, global inflation and tightening monetary conditions. Institutional credibility was preserved, and the financial system was held. But for many Namibians, stability did not translate into opportunity.
Unemployment, particularly among the youth, remained stubbornly high. Living costs rose faster than incomes. Poverty and informality deepened.
Uaandja’s NIPDB was billed as a game-changer: a one-stop investment body designed to unlock capital, cut red tape and drive industrialisation.
Yet investment outcomes remained uneven and the promised wave of transformative projects has been slow to materialise.
Mnyupe’s green hydrogen drive positioned Namibia boldly on the global energy map, but its benefits remain largely in the future, still far removed from households struggling to meet daily needs.
None of this ignores the context in which they served. Covid-19 disrupted economies everywhere. Fiscal space was tight.
Structural problems were inherited. But leadership is ultimately measured by translation – by whether ideas move beyond policy boardrooms and into people’s lives.
As Geingob’s economic chosen thinkers now leave the stage, Namibia is left with reflection rather than accusation.
Did the country feel the work of its brightest technocrats? Did economic expertise translate into dignity, jobs and opportunity for the majority? Or did too much remain confined to strategy documents, institutions and elite conversations?
Geingob believed deeply in expertise. He believed Namibia could think its way out of a crisis. The people he appointed were given the platform to prove that belief right.
Their departure now shifts the burden of judgement to the only place it truly belongs: the lived experience of ordinary Namibians.
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