Business

The Construction Industries Federation (CIF) wants the industry to resume immediately after the lockdown ends on 4 May 2020, warning of mass retrenchments and company bankruptcies if this does not happen.

FNB Namibia has confirmed that, as of this week, FNB branches will be closed on Saturdays to curb branch activities due to the Covid-19 lockdown period.

The management committee of Lüderitz Crayfish Festival has confirmed the cancelation of this year’s Crayfish festival, which was scheduled to take place from 30 April until 4 May 2020. 

Since the beginning of the Covid-19 outbreak, First National Bank Namibia has been closely monitoring developments, with the view of provisionally restructuring its operations and solutions to meet the changing demands and minimising the impact of the pandemic.

In a further bid to provide relief to its clients and to mitigate the negative impact of Covid-19, Standard Bank confirmed a decrease

The Ohlthaver & List (O&L) Group, one of Namibia’s largest private sector companies employing about 6500 Namibians and contributing almost 4% to GDP, said the impact of Covid-19 on Namibia and the rest of the world are not yet fully understood but will be felt for many years to come.

The Sanlam Group has thrown its weight behind the fight against the spread of Coronavirus in Africa and other territories where it has a business presence outside of South Africa by donating R45 million (about US$2.3 million) to support various initiatives to fight the pandemic. 

Commercial banks have commenced with a reduction of their interest rates after the Bank of Namibia’s Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) on Wednesday cut the repo rate even further by 100 basis points to 4.25% in a bid to provide more relief for consumers. At its new level, the repo rate is expected to provide some short-term relief to borrowers.

The Roads Authority (RA) has informed clients that in line with the extension of the lockdown period announced by President Hage Geingob on 14 April 2020, all its offices, including NaTIS, Transport Regulations and Weighbridges, will remain closed until Monday, 4 May 2020. 

Winston Churchill once said, “Never let a good crisis go to waste.” A quick look at the situation within the Namibian tourism sector reveals that it is going through an unprecedented period that requires it to re-engineer itself.