Trial And Error

Originally published in the Informanté newspaper on Thursday, 16 November, 2017.

Over the last few weeks, we’ve talked quite a bit about the values each of us should possess if we want to build a Namibian House. One “where everyone feels a sense of belonging, where everyone is presented with a fair opportunity to prosper in an inclusive manner and by so doing, ensure that no one feels left out.” We, as a people, need to be honest, loyal, kind, jovial and generous, whilst uniting in the bonds of friendship. But what does our government need to do? For a start, it needs to lift all Namibians into prosperity based on an inclusive Namibian House, united in its cause. 

There are, of course, several policies one can implement to alleviate poverty, but none of them work without economic growth. It is often said that economic growth will alleviate poverty, but this is not strictly true for economic growth alone – it will only alleviate poverty if the lowest wages rise faster than the average wage, and if benefits and pensions are kept in line with average wage increases. Economic growth, however, creates new job opportunities, and that is how poverty gets alleviated. It is quite well known that the biggest cause of poverty is in fact unemployment! 

Government has had some success in this, but it appears to have followed the time tested method of trial and error – repeated, varied attempts which are continued until you find success. Unfortunately, it appears government is only measuring the end result to see what is effective – and as a result, may be missing the intermediary measures one can examine to see if policies may not be able to improve those. 

This seems like a job for our Statistician-General, but until such time, we can also look to international studies – such as the Doing Business Report of the World Bank Group. In its 2018 report, however, the results did not look good. Out of 190 countries, Namibia came 106^st on its ease of doing business, dropping 5 places in two years.

In particular, there are several sub-sections where Namibia should mightily improve if we want to build an inclusive Namibian House. In terms of tackling unemployment, perhaps the most important of these would be the ease with which one can start a new business. Namibia ranked 172^nd out of 190 countries – we’ve dropped 8 places in just two years.

To start a new business, there are 10 procedures that need to be followed, which takes 66 days. Compare that to New Zealand, the best, where there is only a single procedure that needs to be followed, and it takes but half a day to register a business. Would it not be better for Namibia’s unemployment if this wall were not in front of every entrepreneur that wished to enter the economy? To simply pay a company’s taxes requires 27 payments a year, and requires 302 hours of work to complete. While this only makes us 79^th in the world, that still means a new entrepreneur needs to work almost two months of a year just on his taxes. This is time not spent building his business!

Registering a property takes 8 procedures, and 52 days – placing us 175^th out of 190 countries. It also on average costs 13.8% of the property’s value. With the world leaders having only a single property procedure taking a single day, and with it costing zero in Saudi Arabia, is it any wonder we’re complaining about land provision when it takes this long and costs so much simply to register it? Perhaps the problem with land is the cost of acquisition…

For trading across borders, I came across an even more startling statistic, which could explain why the Bank of Namibia is constantly warning our citizens that our imports exceed our exports. In order to export from Namibia, it requires 15 working days to ensure border compliance, or two working weeks. It requires an additional 11 working days to ensure the documentation is completed for that export, with the costs to ensure compliance amounting to almost US$1100. Now compare that to the 6 hours required to ensure goods are compliant to import, with only 3 hours required for import documentation, costing less than US$210. 

And to enforce a contract here in Namibia, it takes 460 days to be heard by the court (only 120 days in Singapore), while it would cost 35.8% of the claim (0.1% in Bhutan), although our court system did get credit for the reform process case management and information communication technology systems. There are several more statistics that relate to the ease of doing business that increase our score compared to these, like Getting Credit (68^th), Getting Electricity (68^th), Dealing with construction permits (107^th) and Protecting Minority Investors (89^th). 

If we as a nation wish to alleviate poverty and unemployment, it seems clear where we should start. I know that we as a nation want to do all that we can. We want to make a contribution – we want to be a part of the plan. Our destiny seems uncertain, and that can be hard to take, but our path will become much clearer with every new choice we make. Patience is never easy; we can all understand wanting more. But we also know how hard it is to wait, as a nation, to spread out our wings and soar.

But we are here for a reason – as a nation, we are gifted, and we are strong. We know we belong here, and we’ll solve our problems. Our time is coming soon – as the sun rises, so does the moon, and as love finds a place in every heart, we are a nation. We’ll play our part.