The battle to recover over N$23 million paid to organisers of the Kora All-Africa Music Awards by the Namibian Tourism Board (NTB) will be heard in September in the Windhoek High Court. 
The parties in the matter have agreed for it to be set down on the fixed roll for 21 to 25 September after it was removed from the action fixed roll in the Windhoek High Court. 

The NTB filed a lawsuit against Mundial Telecom in 2016 in an attempt to recover money that was to be spent on hosting the Kora All-Africa Music Awards during 2016 in Namibia, which never materialised. 
The parties allegedly failed to settle out of court; thus, NTB wants the court to compel Ernest Adjovi and Mundial Telecom, which is based in Abidjan, Côte d’Ivoire, to pay back over N$23 million in public funds. 
The funds were allegedly swindled out of the tourism body at the end of 2015. 
Court documents state at the time that NTB paid the money to Mundial Telecom at the end of 2015, the agreement was that the company would provide a tourism promotion package to the NTB connected to the Kora All-Africa Music Awards ceremony, which was supposed to be held in Namibia in March 2016. 

The ceremony, however, took place as scheduled, while Adjovi’s company failed to pay back the money to the NTB. 
The agreement was signed on the Namibian side by the NTB in the interest of tourism promotion and development, and it was cleared by the Office of the Attorney General. 
Mundial Telecom blamed the government for not pulling their weight as per the agreement entered by the parties. 
The organisation has stated that government was supposed to help with the raising of funds but failed to do so. 
Mundial Telecom allegedly needed an amount between US$7 to US$10 million to host the event. 
However, only an amount of N$23 million was raised, resulting in the event being cancelled two weeks before the date it was scheduled to take place. – mamakali@nepc.com.na