Govt policy deadlier than virus

Jo-Mare Duddy – The financial woes of the majority of local businesses which have been forced to downsize this year started before the Covid-19 pandemic hit the world.An independent survey conducted by the Economic Policy Research Unit (EPRA), released this week, shows more than 40% of responding businesses said they had to curtail operations this year. Of these, 77% reported that their hardship started even before the outbreak of the coronavirus.Nearly a third of businesses doesn’t believe they will survive for another decade if the current policy environment prevails. About 30.5% is “extremely negative” about their prospects to pull through if the status quo doesn’t change, EPRA says.Only 1.9% of businesses are “extremely positive” about their prospects.“EPRA is concerned that the narrative on Namibia’s economic dire straits is not grounded in our own internal reality,” the think tank says. More specifically, EPRA says it is worried that “the narrative appears to disregard the role of government policy in our economic regression, which has been prevailing for many years already”.EPRA referred to comments made after Moody’s last Friday downgraded Namibia to three notches below investment status, affirming its negative outlook for the country.“It appears that, at least internally, the narrative remains that Covid is largely, if not solely, to blame for the dismal performance of the Namibian economy,” EPRA says.The results of its survey prove this is not the case, it says.‘EXTREMELY UNCONDUCIVE’About 64% of businesses reported that the current environment – existing and proposed laws and policies – is “extremely” unconducive to private sector economic growth.The latest draft of the New Equitable Economic Empowerment Bill (NEEEB) and the Namibia Investment Promotion Act (NIPA) have come under constant fire this year. Procurement and the tax regime remain controversial too.More than 92% of businesses which were included in EPRA’s survey said they don’t think that government understands what is needed to grow the private sector.Asked whether they believe it is an honest objective of government to grow the private sector, nearly 84% said no.Nearly 48% is convinced that they have no influence over government policy as “politicians only value their own opinions”. About 41% said they have no clout as a business, but have some influence through certain associations.Nearly 65% regards government interference in the free market economy as high, while 19.5% believes it is extremely high.Government service is poor, 54% of business said, while 42% regards it as extremely poor.Analysts have warned that the inability of the private sector to grow will hamper employment in Namibia.About 63% of respondents in the EPRA survey expect unemployment in the country to increase substantially over the next five years, while nearly 29% believe it will increase “somewhat”.WATCHDOGEPRA is a voluntary association established in 2017 with its main objective to advocate for pragmatic, sustainable, pro-growth and investment friendly economic policy. By extension EPRA advocates for pragmatic job creation and equality improvement, it says.The association recently amended its constitution to allow for individual membership in addition to corporate membership. EPRA took the decision to build capacity to receive and investigate complaints of unconstitutional conduct, laws and policies by government. It also intends to investigate “any effort by government to derogate from the principles of the rule”, the association says.In addition, EPRA wants to set up a litigation fund to challenge government in matters of national interest.

Govt policy deadlier than virus

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Namibian Sun 2025-09-18

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Govt policy deadlier than virus

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Namibian Sun 2025-09-18

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