Namibia Wildlife Resorts is currently in a healthy financial state. In fact, NWR spokesperson Nelson Ashipala said the tourism parastatal is in better shape than it has ever been before after declaring historic profits of N$46 million and a clean audit report for two consecutive years.
Responding to New Era queries, Ashipala said the excellent financial results were attributed mainly to accommodation as well as food and beverages' activities at NWR resorts.
He added that while regular maintenance is ongoing at NWR resorts, the company will, during this financial year, focus on Popa Falls' roof replacement and the wooden decks at Olifantrus. These remain some of NWR’s key projects.
Last week ,NWR board and management presented its annual report to finance and public enterprises minister Ipumbu Shiimi, as well as environment, forestry and tourism minister Pohamba Shifeta.
In a statement announcing the results, NWR noted that it produced solid financial results for the 2023/24 financial year in a highly-competitive environment. During the period under review, NWR’s revenue increased by 32%, from N$294 million in 2022 to N$387 million. The overall bottom- line was increased by 231%, from a loss (of N$35 million in 2022) to a record profit of N$46 million in 2023.
“Despite increasing inflation, fuel costs and repo rates during the year under review, operational expenses, excluding reversals on penalties and interest payments on statutory payments and loans settled, increased only by 7%, mainly driven by increased spending on repairs, renovations and maintenance of our facilities.
The company continued to invest in capital infrastructure. Repairs and maintenance were N$27 million [2022: N$23 million]. Maintaining our resorts and camps so as to improve customer experience and service delivery is one of NWR’s strategic “intents,” the parastatal stated. Meanwhile, NWR managing director Matthias Ngwangwama was elated by the positive news, and remarked: “NWR continued to make good progress on its strategic value drivers of occupancy growth, revenue, expenses management, profitability and improvements on the balance-sheet. The solid financial performance in 2023 and the ever-improving profit and balance-sheet metrics is a demonstration of our commitment to our national mandate of providing tourism-related services in national parks of Namibia, and being an important government arm through which the tourism national objectives are met in line with its founding Act, the Namibia Wildlife Resorts Company Act (Act 3 of 1998)”.
On his turn, board chairperson Ambassador Harold /Urib stated: “Our financial performance continued to show resilience in 2023. In particular, long-term loans, statutory loans to financial development and commercial institutions and tax authorities, which were long-standing challenges in the past, were fully settled in 2023, and the company attained a long-term debt-free status. We demonstrated that it is possible to achieve positive results in the public enterprises domain”.
Meanwhile, NWR’s annual financial statements are now up to date, and another unqualified audit opinion was achieved for the 2023 statements, like in the previous year. “This achievement reflects the hard work and dedication of the entire NWR team, and underscores the company’s commitment to improved governance, transparency and accountability. Overall, NWR’s annual report reflects a commitment to excellence in all areas of its operations. The company remains dedicated to providing exceptional service to its guests, while upholding the highest corporate responsibility and accountability standards,” the company stated.