Business Reporter
THE Construction Industries Federation (CIF) today held another protest, calling for the regulation of the Namibian construction industry to allow Namibian contractors to be awarded construction projects. According to the CIF, most projects in the industry are currently being provided to foreign contractors.
“We can no longer tolerate that our own contractors are excluded as a result of unrealistic prequalification tender requirements on projects financed by loans from the African Development Bank and the Kreditanstalt fuer Wiederaufbau (a German development bank),” said Bärbel Kirchner, Chief Executive Officer of the CIF.
Kirchner thus called for the regulation of Namibia’s construction industry through the establishment of a construction council, which would also address poor workmanship and uncompleted government projects.
Additionally, Kirchner called for the regulation of the industry to stop contracts being awarded to tenderpreneurs who mostly subcontract to foreign contractors. The council, Kirchner added, would also prevent possible nepotism and corruption in the construction sector.
According to statistics provided by the CIF, since 2016, Namibia’s construction sector has been severely affected byl the regulatory environment, with the announcement of the moratorium on capital projects by the government. At the time, the construction sector contributed 7.2% to Namibia’s GDP. Now, the sector’s contribution is estimated to be less than 2% of GDP.
“What is particularly worrying is that the Namibian government is making tremendous efforts to attract foreign direct investment, particularly in the area of Green Hydrogen and the oil and gas sector. However, there are fears that, looking at the precedent with regard to the involvement of foreign contractors in Namibia’s construction industry, majority Namibian-owned contractors will continue to be pushed aside and displaced due to the involvement of foreign contractors,” Kirchner said.
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