NDTC hands N$60 million dividend to Government

WINDHOEK – The Namibia Diamond Trading Company (NDTC) on Tuesday handed over dividends of N$60 million to the government in Windhoek.

This is the 11th time the NDTC hands over dividends through the Ministry of Mines and Energy since the company’s inception in 2007. To date, it has handed over N$2 billion.

The purpose of NDTC is to make diamonds available in Namibia for local manufacturing and sales, in order to create local Namibian brands and support the government’s efforts of job creation and value addition from the country’s diamond resources.

Minister of mines and energy Obeth Kandjoze, who received the cheque during the ceremony, said the government and the NDTC continue to participate and build on good faith negotiations, with the goal to ensure that more value is added to Namibian diamonds, and to create a viable and sustainable diamond beneficiation sector that will have strong roots for many years to come.

“The ministry would like to guarantee our partners in the diamond industry of government’s commitment to promote and continuously lobby for sustainable growth, stability and viability of the downstream on the diamond industry through increased supply of rough diamonds to the factories,” he said.

At the same event, NDTC chief executive officer Shihaleni Ndjaba said the diamond industry has been faced by a very challenging environment during the first half of 2015 but there are signs that the market is stabilising on the back of fewer rough diamonds being fed into the pipeline and slowly helping to reduce the polished diamonds overhang in the market.

“The polished markets remain challenging due to slower than expected polished demand since the fourth quarter of 2014, as well as a decline in polishing prices, and this has created pricing pressure on the rough markets,” he said.