Learn about barriers to market entry and local requirements, i.e., things to be aware of when entering the market for this country.
  • Namibia is a small market and is heavily dependent on international trade.
  • Namibia is among the countries with the worst income disparities in the world (a Gini coefficient index of 59.1 in 2015, according to the World Bank).
  • Employers should consider the impact of HIV/AIDS on their workforce.  In 2016, the adult prevalence rate was estimated to be 12.1 percent in 2017, according to UNAIDS.
  • Despite high unemployment, there is a critical shortage of skilled labor.  The latest Labor Force Survey (2018 data) estimates the unemployment rate at 33.4 percent.
  • Although there is no local participation requirement for foreign investments except in the natural resource sectors (primarily mining and fishing), the government actively encourages partnerships with historically disadvantaged Namibians.
  • Due to ongoing government land reform efforts, foreigners are generally prohibited from purchasing agricultural land.
  • Employers often cite productivity as one of their major challenges.
  • The process for obtaining work permits for foreign employees is bureaucratically burdensome and time consuming.
  • Of 190 countries ranked in the World Bank’s Doing Business 2019 report, Namibia ranked lowest in the following three areas:
Registering Property 174
Starting a Business 172
Trading Across Borders 136

The law prohibits corruption, and the government has shown improvement in addressing it.  Nevertheless, the World Bank's Worldwide Governance Indicators reflected that corruption was a problem. Transparency International ranked Namibia 53 out of 180 countries in its 2018 corruption perceptions index, which measures the perceptions of businesses and country analysts about the degree of corruption in a country.  Namibia scored 53 on the index - a score of 100 reflects a “highly clean” and 0 reflects a “highly corrupt” nation. 

Namibia standard (non-mining) corporate tax on earnings is 32 percent, in line with tax rates charged by other countries in the region.  Special provisions in some sectors may reduce this tax rate.  For mining, the corporate tax rate remains 37.5 percent for all but diamonds, for which at the rate is 55 percent.

As in much of southern Africa, the demand for electricity outstrips domestic supply.  To date Namibia has escaped any large-scale power outages or load shedding, but it remains heavily reliant on buying electricity from South Africa.

Prepared by our U.S. Embassies abroad. With its network of 108 offices across the United States and in more than 75 countries, the U.S. Commercial Service of the U.S. Department of Commerce utilizes its global presence and international marketing expertise to help U.S. companies sell their products and services worldwide. Locate the U.S. Commercial Service trade specialist in the U.S. nearest you by visiting http://export.gov/usoffices.