First couple to reveal wealth update

First Lady Monica Geingos has confirmed that she and her husband, President Hage Geingob, will once again publicly declare their assets this year. The couple, who celebrated their fifth wedding anniversary on Valentine's Day last week, declared their assets in 2015 after Geingob ascended to the presidency. “While I can't speak for the president, I can confirm that each of us plan to do another asset declaration this year,” Geingos told Namibian Sun. She did not indicate when exactly their asset declarations will take place. This follows Geingos's pledge to leave all her money to charity when she dies.“If I'm telling poor children that they must be well educated, have the right attitude and they must stay away from self-destructive behaviour and they'll be fine, then surely that message should apply to my kids too?” Geingos told the Thompson Reuters Foundation last week. Presidential spokesperson Alfredo Hengari was tight-lipped recently when asked whether Geingob would repeat his asset declaration. At the first cabinet meeting of the year the president said new cabinet ministers would be required to publicly declare their assets. At the time of the 2015 declaration, Geingob's assets were valued at N$50 million while his wife's were worth between N$45 million and N$60 million in equity investments.When he made the declaration, Geingob's assets included cash and investments, fixed property, livestock, an art collection, gold, gems, jewellery and furniture.His voluntary financial disclosure report listed a total of N$14.8 million in several interest-bearing accounts with local banks and one in the United States, a total of N$10.8 million in investment and money market accounts with Allan Gray and Pointbreak Wealth Management, and properties estimated at between N$8 million and N$10 million registered under a family trust called Dr Hage Geingob Family Trust Assets. The properties consisted of a farm near Tsumeb, a house on the outskirts of Windhoek and a property at Henties Bay. His livestock consisted of 150 head of cattle estimated at N$664 000. Geingos traced her wealth back to Stimulus Investments, a private-equity firm. Most of her wealth during her first public declaration was carried by Stimulus Investments, which has interests in media, fishing, retail, property and manufacturing. She owns 10% of Stimulus. When she declared her assets back in May 2015, her account at a local bank showed a balance of N$35 000. Her house in Klein Windhoek was valued at N$7.5 million while her household items included jewellery, gold, gems, art, furniture and livestock with an estimated value of N$1.5 million at the time. Her life insurance through PPS Life Cover was estimated at N$13 million while her investment in PointBreak was around N$265 000.Geingos also owned the now defunct EBank Holdings, which introduced the first online bank in Namibia and was subsequently acquired by FNB Namibia Holdings. During the first cabinet meeting of the year earlier this month Geingob also encouraged his ministers to declare their assets, as he and finance minister Calle Schlettwein had done in the past.“If we declare our assets, we must also improve on the asset declaration. People just say no, no, no I have nothing no, no, no … that doesn't help. If we can improve on it and declare, these are the things that will help us to correct the image that has been destroyed by Fishrot,” the head of state said. While dubbing 2020 'The Year of Introspection', Geingob argued that contrary to the claims of some analysts that the loss of Swapo's two-thirds majority in parliament by one seat during last year's general election was a big failure, it indeed received a massive mandate of 66% and 63 seats. Geingob also delivered an ominous warning to sitting cabinet ministers, saying they should not think they would serve for the rest of their lives. He emphasised that he will be trimming down his cabinet during his second term, which is set to commence of 21 March.JEMIMA BEUKES AND OGONE TLHAGE

First couple to reveal wealth update

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Namibian Sun 2025-06-12

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First couple to reveal wealth update

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Namibian Sun 2025-06-12

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