Windhoek
The Namibia National Reinsurance Corporation Ltd (NamibRe) yesterday handed over a dividend in respect of its financial year ended March 31, 2016 of N$3.5 million to government, which is its only shareholder. NamibRe is a state-owned enterprise offering reinsurance services to local and international insurance markets. The dividend handed over is 20 percent of the net profit after taxation of N$17.5 million for the 2016 financial year. For the 2015 financial year, the corporation declared a dividend of N$2 million and to date has paid N$12.6 million in dividends to the shareholder.
Yesterday’s event, which was held at the NamibRe offices in Ausspanplatz, was attended by the Deputy Minister of Finance, Natangue Ithete, as well as NamibRe board members and management. In her welcoming remarks, the Board Deputy Chairperson, Libertha Kapere, reiterated the corporation’s commitment towards working hard to achieve its strategic objectives as set out in the corporation’s strategic plan and to annually declare dividends to the shareholder. She noted that with the support of the government, NamibRe will strive to ensure that it implements its mandate fully and will continue to declare dividends to the shareholder, as done for a number of years.
Ithete received the cheque on behalf of Treasury and delivered the keynote address where he applauded the corporation for honouring their financial obligations to the shareholder and striving to meet its mandate. He stressed that the corporation’s ability to declare dividends amidst the current adverse economic conditions shows the effort and dedication invested by the board, management and staff of the corporation. Accordingly, he encouraged other SOEs to emulate the corporation in terms of performance and ability to declare dividends.
The deputy minister stated that the lacklustre performance of the global and local economies has adversely affected government revenues. Therefore, declaration of dividends from SOEs at this time is important and welcomed as this would assist the government in meeting its obligations of providing public goods to the nation and delivering on national projects. He further implored SOEs to strive to achieve financial self-sustainability and operational efficiency by adopting sound systems for the mobilisation, utilisation and management of public funds. By so doing, SOEs would be able to achieve financial sustainability, contribute towards the fiscus and meet their mandate.
Ithete further encouraged the financial sector to ensure that capital outflow from the Namibian financial industry is minimised, as unabated capital flight results not only in Namibians having limited access to financial services, but the government has limited access to affordable funds to use to develop infrastructure. He concluded by directing the corporation to ensure that it executes its mandate by ensuring that the recently approved government notices are fully implemented. He also called on the industry to give NamibRe its full cooperation as this would benefit the local financial sector and the country at large.