Supporting the management of state-owned enterprises in Namibia

Context

Commercial private enterprises (CPEs) fulfil important functions in the Namibian economy. They provide vital services such as infrastructure, electricity and water, regulate various sectors of the economy, create jobs and generate revenue for the government.

However, many CPEs are inefficient or ineffective. The number of loss-making state-owned enterprises is increasing and nearly all CPEs are reliant on the state budget.

The Ministry of Finance & Public Enterprises (MFPE) has been managing the CPEs since 2022. However, the ministry has limited financial and logistical resources and few staff at its disposal. At the same time, staff do not have sufficient expertise to make the CPEs more efficient. State-owned enterprises and the ministry have also been affected by corruption and nepotism in the past.

Objective

Commercial state-owned enterprises in Namibia have better institutional, personnel and operational conditions to operate efficiently.

Approach

Via MFPE, the project works to improve the efficiency and effectiveness of public enterprises. It improves institutional, administrative and economic policy conditions in three areas:

1. The project formulates and develops a legal and institutional framework so that MFPE can establish a holding company to take over the overall management of the CPE.
2. It promotes the HR and communication framework for providing and analysing services. To do so, it trains employees in the ministry on how to analyse and improve state-owned commercial enterprises on the basis of a digital performance monitoring system.
3. It is committed to ensuring that selected Namibian CPEs fulfil their accountability obligations to MFPE. In 2021, the predecessor project developed and implemented a monitoring system for this purpose, which also prepared the digitalisation of reporting obligations.

Last update: December 2023