Namibia Airports Company: Intends to Employ Namibia Companies for the Extension of its Airports

By Abdul Rahman Suagibu –

NEW AFRICA DAILY NEWS, Freetown, Sierra Leone- NAMIBIA Airports Company (NAC) has opted in to make do with Namibian companies for contractual work on its airports and other functions with stringent measures that are out of touch with realities.

Leake Hangala – Board Chairperson of the Namibia Airports Company (NAC) disclosed on January, 28^th 2020 during a media briefing at the Hosea Kutako International Airport. Hangala stated: “We have decided that, we will employ Namibian companies whenever possible. On this project (airport extension), we contracted just Namibian companies and we do not expect them to perform below standard.”

He noted, Namibian contractors and entrepreneurs would be prioritized with preferential treatment provided, they adhere to the stipulated quality and standards, budget and timely delivery. “Let us tell the world that we, Namibians, can do it. Moreover, NAC will first look at Namibian contractors, not because they are Namibians but because they can deliver,” Hangala noted.

The NAC Board Chairperson advised potential contractors that, NAC would not entertain any substandard work. Added that, they would require timeliness in completing projects, meeting the quality expectancy of NAC and completing the work within the budget.

He furthered that, “for contractors out there who expect that NAC will just give a job and do whatever they want, their days are over”.

On paying back to the real participants (government) and growing investment, Hangala described that, NAC is working assiduously to ascertain it fulfils its mandate and contribute to the economic growth through aviation and promote Namibia as the most important form of a dividend. Hangala added that, NAC is also gazing to the future when it can translate its shareholder investment into cash.

The government recently asked its commercial public enterprises to pay special dividends and so far, only Namibian Post and Telecom Holdings came through while NamPower and Namdia paid normal dividends.

NAC’s Chief Executive Officer – Bisey Uirab, said there is a perception that, when a parastatal pays dividends to the government it has done well. He said, the public must look beyond cash dividends and consider economic value created.

“We must look at economic value created by public enterprises to the Namibian economy. Yes, it is important to pay millions in dividends to the government, but it is more crucial to have an efficiently operated institution that brings more business opportunities to Namibia,” stated Uirab.

He furthered that, it is significant to have an efficiently operated company that entices foreign direct investment so that, those investments can multiply more than the dividends that could have been paid to the government. Uirab added, when evaluating the performance of parastatals like NAC, one should not narrowly just look at the dividend declared to the government, but also evaluate if the entity has met the mandate it was created for and added value to the economy. He also indicated that, NAC does not go to the government for a bailout but rather for capital injection for capital projects from its main shareholder, which is normal practice.

“In the case of NAC, it does not run to the government for a bailout. It did not run to government to ask for money to pay for salaries, staff medical aid or for any operational expenditure,” /Uirab explained.

He said NAC has been self-sustaining, as it only engaged the government as a shareholder to invest in capital projects. NAC is upgrading the Hosea Kutako International Airport to the tune of N$250 million, where government pumped in N$155 million and NAC invested N$95 million.

For New Africa Daily News Abdul Rahman Suagibu Reports,  Africa Correspondent

www.newafricadailynews.com