Namibia’s central bank unveiled a policy to provide financial relief to the country’s drought-hit farming industry, Bloomberg News reported. The plan, which took effect Oct. 23, mandates lenders to offer loan restructuring, debt moratoriums, and emergency funding with preferential terms, the Bank of Namibia said in a emailed statement on Monday. The measures will help ease the financial burden on clients while helping to stabilize the agricultural industry, it said. Farmers and agricultural businesses that can demonstrate significant drought-related losses will be eligible for relief.
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Namibia
Namibian President Hage Geingob on Tuesday appointed an 11-member Business Rescue Task Force to review business and insolvency legislation with the aim of rescuing businesses in financial distress, Reuters reported. The Southern African nation, whose mining and tourism dependent economy has been ravaged by the COVID-19 pandemic, is in the midst of a deadly third wave of infections that is threatening to take more businesses under.
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Lawyers representing defunct Belgian airline ChallengeAir moved on Friday to seize Air Namibia’s headquarters after the state carrier failed to honour a 10 million euro ($12.14 million) settlement agreement reached last month to save it from liquidation, Reuters reported. Air Namibia survived liquidation attempts by creditor ChallengeAir SA in January when the two firms reached the settlement agreement minutes before liquidation proceedings were due to kick off.
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Debt-laden Air Namibia, which cancelled all flights earlier on Thursday, has been placed into voluntary liquidation, Finance Minister Iipumbu Shiimi said, calling the state-owned airline “unsustainable,” Reuters reported. Government said that it had considered all other options, which included potential investment from other airlines and turnaround strategies, before it decided to file for liquidation.
Cash-strapped Air Namibia survived liquidation attempts by defunct Belgian flyer ChallengeAir SA on Friday when the two firms reached a 10 million euros ($12 million) settlement minutes before liquidation proceedings were due to kick off, MoneyWeb reported. ChallengeAir had filed for the loss-making flag carrier’s liquidation last year, arguing Air Namibia was insolvent and unable to repay about 253 million Namibian dollars ($17 million) in debt incurred for the lease of a Boeing 767 back in 1998.
The number of insolvencies during this financial year so far is half that of the last financial year, according to statistics provided by the master of the High Court at the national consultative workshop on the insolvency bill being held at Swakopmund, The Namibian reported. Last year, 32 insolvencies were registered, which included 12 companies and 15 close corporations being liquidated, and five people being sequestrated.
Minister of Justice Sacky Shanghala says there is a need for the Law Reform and Development Commission (LRDC) to also include cross-border insolvency when formalising the Insolvency Bill that will eventually replace the Insolvency Act of 1936, AllAfrica.com reported. Cross-border insolvency, also referred to as international insolvency, regulates the treatment of financially distressed debtors when they have assets or creditors in more than one country.