9 December 2011
opinion
EDITOR, please allow me space in your beloved newspaper to respond to the World Bank’s report about the Namibian property market.
It is a complete lie to say that foreigners are the ones to blame in the recent rise of property value in Namibia.
Of course, Angolans buy Namibian property in cash and that’s a big advantage for the Namibian economy, but they are not many. Ask any economist and you will be told that bringing in cash into a country will push the balance of payments in a positive direction.
After all, the area size of Namibia is about 824 292 square kilometres. The estimated population is about two million, with a density of 2.41 people per square km. This means that you can literally allocate two people per square kilometre of land, whereas that of India is about 364 people per square km.
Therefore, the World Bank cannot base their statistics and research on a few Angolans who come to buy property in Namibia. The point here is even if the whole population of Angola of about 12 million people moves to Namibia, the density will still be far lower than that of India.
Having Euro-Asian and Asian business people coming to Namibia for its rich resources does not push up property prices either. The fact that there is a high demand for properties especially for accommodation is directly as a result of increasing population with little or no availability of serviced land.
The municipalities are not servicing enough land at a rate that is faster than the population growth. Hence we get into a situation where prices rise as a result of demand.
The World Bank also blames the existence of close corporations, which allow a change of ownership by simply selling shares to a second party without paying stamp duties or transfer fees.
My question is, who in the first place came up with the law that if property is to change title, stamp duties and transfer fees must be paid? Someone with an interest in the property market initiated the law so that they could gain from it. All Namibia did was to adopt that law when it got independent. So did many other countries.
Now why must Namibia do what the World Bank says? Our dear politicians and parliamentarians, I ask you humbly not to do what these bankers are now asking. It will only serve their interests and these are ‘to use the banking system and keep paying them interest!’
That is why Angolans are not liked. They do not use banks! They deal with cash only and it is not good for the World Bank’s capitalistic economy.
We should not allow the World Bank and IMF (International Monetary Fund) to dictate to us how we should run our own economies. They dictated to Europe and where is the European economy now? Now they are implementing austerity measures on their own citizens and cutting the pensions for old people. How cruel is that? The IMF advised the Zimbabwean government to implement the Economic Structural Adjustment Program (ESAP) in the early 90s, including to remove controlled prices of goods and services.
The Zimbabwe dollar was stronger than the Rand at that time. After initiating ESAP, the Zimbabwean currency plummeted year after year until they started blaming it on the leadership and the government there.
Zimbabwe had made a serious blunder in accepting the ESAP pact full of false promises and paltry aid. This also happened in many other developing countries.
I have only one word for the World Bank and IMF: greed! They want everyone else to submit to their banking rules and policies so that they can make profit! Where there is debt there is profit.
In Angola, just because more than 90 percent deal only in cash means that the banks cannot make profit. There is no interest to be charged on cash clients.
That means there is no business.
In conclusion, I trust that the Namibian Government will ignore this report and even change some of the banking policies implemented during the colonial era. Welcome Hage Geingob’s SME bank that will cater for the small entrepreneurs.
Tangi
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