Cabinet approves revised NEEEF
The cabinet has approved a revised version of the New Equitable Economic Empowerment Framework (NEEEF) Bill.
JEMIMA BEUKES
After approving the revised version of the New Equitable Economic Empowerment Framework (NEEEF) Bill, the cabinet has tasked Prime Minister Saara Kuugongelwa-Amadhila to submit a draft bill to the Cabinet Committee on Legislation for scrutiny.
Economist Rowland Brown, however, pointed out that the devil is in the detail and there is need for a wider public consultation for the sake of transparency.
He also cautioned against this legislation being used as a vehicle to enrich the rich and to make the poor poorer.
“There is nothing wrong with legislation that empowers the people but it is critical that it is done so to create opportunities and empower the people but with minimum collateral damage. But it would be a terrible thing if it is used for looting and to allow for more Fishrot and not to genuinely empower Namibians,” said Brown.
The bill, that was meant to have been tabled in 2018, has hit a hurdle for a number of reasons, including the requirement that businesses owned by previously advantaged Namibians should transfer 25% of their ownership to previously disadvantaged Namibians.
However, during a cabinet briefing, President Hage Geingob said that the 25% ownership pillar should be done away with because it would not translate into broad-based empowerment.
Critics argued that the removal of this clause would provide policy certainty to foreign investors as well as appease local private business who threatened to leave the country in the face of this arrangement.
Geingob explained in August 2019, when he addressed the Namibia Economic Growth Summit, that the tabling of the NEEEF Bill was not a means to take ownership away from advantaged Namibians.
“As we forge ahead towards a new economic identity that is reflective of a more equitable post-independence Namibia, I should make it categorically clear that it is not our intent to take away from those who have, but rather to grow the Namibian economy so that more Namibians can own and manage productive economic assets,” Geingob said.
[email protected]
After approving the revised version of the New Equitable Economic Empowerment Framework (NEEEF) Bill, the cabinet has tasked Prime Minister Saara Kuugongelwa-Amadhila to submit a draft bill to the Cabinet Committee on Legislation for scrutiny.
Economist Rowland Brown, however, pointed out that the devil is in the detail and there is need for a wider public consultation for the sake of transparency.
He also cautioned against this legislation being used as a vehicle to enrich the rich and to make the poor poorer.
“There is nothing wrong with legislation that empowers the people but it is critical that it is done so to create opportunities and empower the people but with minimum collateral damage. But it would be a terrible thing if it is used for looting and to allow for more Fishrot and not to genuinely empower Namibians,” said Brown.
The bill, that was meant to have been tabled in 2018, has hit a hurdle for a number of reasons, including the requirement that businesses owned by previously advantaged Namibians should transfer 25% of their ownership to previously disadvantaged Namibians.
However, during a cabinet briefing, President Hage Geingob said that the 25% ownership pillar should be done away with because it would not translate into broad-based empowerment.
Critics argued that the removal of this clause would provide policy certainty to foreign investors as well as appease local private business who threatened to leave the country in the face of this arrangement.
Geingob explained in August 2019, when he addressed the Namibia Economic Growth Summit, that the tabling of the NEEEF Bill was not a means to take ownership away from advantaged Namibians.
“As we forge ahead towards a new economic identity that is reflective of a more equitable post-independence Namibia, I should make it categorically clear that it is not our intent to take away from those who have, but rather to grow the Namibian economy so that more Namibians can own and manage productive economic assets,” Geingob said.
[email protected]
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