WINDHOEK, Mar. 9 – The first ever Eljota Investment Summit took place at the Namibian Institute of Public Administration and Management (NIPAM) earlier this week, with more than 200 delegates from across the Namibian financial investment fraternity in attendance.
The purpose at of the Investment Summit was to create a conversation on issues in the local economy, investment and retirement industry as well as to provide an inside view from local fund management houses, investment professionals and financial services players.
Founding member of Eljota Investments Managers, Johannes !Gawaxab said the summit was aimed at getting the sense of the investment landscape in Namibia.
“We are bringing a group of regional and local financial sector players together to debate investment insights with the view to protect and grow wealth and to take advantage of investment opportunities that are opening up in the local market.”
Chief Economist at Nedbank South Africa, Dennis Dykes opened the Summit by giving an outlook of the global and South African economic environments. His presentation explained that the global economic environment, which has emerged from the global financial crisis and is starting to show a more synchronized growth, with the forecast for global growth according to the IMF being 3.9 percent for 2018.
“For the moment things are looking comfortable in the global environment, the risks seem to be under control; however there is the threat of the possibility of interest rates increasing.” Dykes also touched on the economic situation in South Africa and stated that the Rand has bounced back as a result of the current political change, which should also help stop the downward spiral the economy has been facing over the last eight years.
Namibian Economist, Rowland Brown presented an overview of the Namibian economic landscape. He explained that the Namibian economy saw a significant growth from Independence up until 2015, from where it started to slow down. Brown attributed the slow down to a number of reasons including drought, the oil price collapse, export pressure in commodities such as uranium as well as the crash of the construction industry. – NDN Staffer
