Namibia has moved up the World Bank’s Ease of Doing Business index – from 108th in 2017 to 106th.
Regionally, however, its ranking has dropped from sixth to ninth place – after Mauritius (25th globally), Rwanda (41st), Kenya (80th) Botswana (81st), South Africa (82nd), Zambia (85th), Seychelles (95th) and Lesotho (104th).
There has been improvement in the country’s “Trading Across Borders” ranking – up from 127th to 120th in the world.
This is after a drop of four places between 2016 and 2017. There is a stark imbalance between the costs of importing and exporting, according to the World Bank figures.
Exporters are at a disadvantage, while Namibia is cheaper than the regional average COMPONENTS OF BORDER COMPLIANCE for imports.
The cost to export, including border and documentary compliance, is US$1 093, compared to US$598 for South Africa and the regional average of US$807.
Import costs total US$208, compared to US$870 for South Africa and the sub-Saharan average of US$986.
This could make a case for Gauteng and Western Cape-based importers to use Walvis Bay, and for exporters to use Cape Town and Durban.
Starting a business in Namibia has become more challenging – the country’s ranking has fallen from 170th out of 190 to 172nd in the “Ease of Starting a Business” category.
The country has also fallen one place to 175th for ease of registering a property (South Africa is 107th).
Estimated costs for the building of a R3.04 million warehouse come to around 2.5% of the value of the project (compared to 9.9% regionally and 1.6% in South Africa).
Expect it to take 160 days to secure permits (149 in South Africa and 145 regionally). There has, however, been significant improvement in the enforcement of contracts, where the country is ranked 59th globally
“Namibia, the economy that improved most notably in the area of enforcing contracts in 2016/17, is witnessing the results of a seven-year reform process in case management and information communication technology systems,” states the World Bank report.
