US says it gave billions more to Namibia

The United States has said its foreign aid to Namibia has been well over N$3 billion between 2021 and last year and not the N$732 million as recorded by the National Planning Commission.

Similarly, China has said its development assistance to Namibia was more than the amount reported by the National Planning Commission (NPC).

Last week, The Namibian reported that the country received over N$3,3 billion over the last two years as foreign aid.

This emerged from an extensive analysis conducted by NPC, shedding light on foreign aid received by the country between the financial years of 2020 and 2022.

The report stated that the United States aided with N$732 million over the two years while China’s funding was recorded as N$72 million in 2020/2021, but trimmed to N$55 million the following year.

In a detailed breakdown of their aid, the US embassy has furnished The Namibian with the amounts it paid into each programme it has in Namibia.
In 2021, the US spent N$1,9 billion and over N$2 billion the next year.

The bulk of these funds went to the President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (Pepfar) and for both years it states that the Namibian government received N$3,3 billion.

The programmes funded by the US include grants to civil society organisations; anti-poaching efforts; training for military, Namibian judiciary and prosecutors; scholarships and fellowships; space programme funding and border security data management programme, among others.

Chinese ambassador to Namibia Zhao Weiping told The Namibian that they do not reveal the figure that they have given to development aid, however, it was more than reported by NPC.

“It is our practice not to disclose the specific amounts in detail, but sometimes we do make it public … I can assure you that China contributed more than what was reported in the newspaper,” Zhao said.

Questions sent to the NPC executive director, Wilhencia Uiras, were not answered by the time of going to print.

FOREIGN AID

The government says the development assistance they have received accounted for less than 2% of gross national income and approximately 6% of the government development budget.

“The official development assistance (ODA) committed by development partners was recorded at N$1,601 billion in 2020/21 and increased to N$1,733 billion in 2021/22 representing an 8% increase,” the assistance report reads.

Namibia’s biggest contributors are Germany whose aid continued to increase from N$556 million in 2020/2021 to N$ 787,6 million.

The United Nations contributed N$217 million in 2020/2021 and boosted it to N$241 million in 2021/2022.

The European Union’s aid stood at N$322 million, but was slashed to N$165 million.

Japan slightly increased the funding from N$21 million (2020/2021) to N$23 million (2021/2022)

The highest amount received by the government was in 2009/2010 when the government got N$3,3 billion in a single year.

“The highest value of assistance, as a percentage of gross national income in Namibia, was recorded immediately after independence in 1991 at 5,8%,” it reads.

This has since reduced to N$2,8 billion. The lowest amount the government collectively received was N$1,3 billion in 2019/2020.