Allexer Namundjembo
Institute for Public Policy Research (IPPR) researcher Frederico Links says preferential procurement rules in Namibia appear strong on paper but lack clear requirements for public disclosure.
Links raised the concern in the latest Procurement Tracker Namibia bulletin released on Wednesday.
He said weak transparency, limited data and poor compliance could affect the government’s plan to prioritise local and historically disadvantaged suppliers.
“While reporting, monitoring and assessment requirements are included in the code, it does not state that any part of this should or must be open to public scrutiny,” Links said.
The government has signalled that preferential procurement will play a central role in public spending. During the national budget statement on 26 February, finance minister Ericah Shafudah said the code of good practice on preferences would guide procurement practices over the medium-term expenditure framework.
“The code lays out the fundamental principles and regulations for preferential procurement in Namibia,” Shafudah told parliament.
“The policy essentially allows for the application of national and exclusive preferences towards categories of Namibian manufacturers as well as other categories, such as youth, SMEs, women, previously disadvantaged suppliers, suppliers promoting environmental protection and suppliers providing employment to Namibians.”
Shafudah had said public entities are being urged to implement the code to strengthen industrialisation and ensure that public spending benefits Namibians.
Preferential procurement in Namibia is governed by the Public Procurement Act of 2015 and its regulations.
The Code of Good Practice on Preferences was first published for public comment in October 2021 and gazetted in January 2023.
Under the code, public entities must include preferences in their procurement plans and submit those plans to the Procurement Policy Unit (PPU) at least three months before the start of the financial year.
Entities must also report procurement awards where preferences were applied on a quarterly basis.
Links said the rules appear comprehensive but warned that transparency challenges remain.
“With Namibian authorities substantially struggling to implement and enforce compliance with the broader transparency provisions of the framework, along with structural data and reporting weaknesses already dragging down the system, it is hard to see monitoring and assessment of preferences transpiring optimally any time soon,” he said.
Data compiled by the IPPR from the government’s e-procurement portal shows that compliance with procurement planning requirements remains low.
By 5 March 2026, only 94 of the 176 public entities required to submit procurement plans for the 2025/26 financial year had done so. This represents about 53%.
Only five of those plans were submitted before the legal deadline in December 2024, meaning only 3% were submitted on time.
Compliance appears lower for the next financial year. By early March, only 26 procurement plans for the 2026/27 financial year had been uploaded to the portal.
This represents about 15% of the 176 public entities expected to submit plans. Of those, only eight were submitted before the December 2025 deadline.
Links said delays and limited public access to procurement plans reduce oversight.
“When procurement plans are delayed or not publicly accessible, it can hinder oversight and lead to inefficiencies in resource allocation,” he said.
He also cautioned that implementing preferential procurement alongside exemptions from competitive bidding processes could heighten corruption risks.
“Preferential procurement presents a serious corruption risk, especially when applied in conjunction with the widespread use of ministerial exemptions and direct procurement,” Links said.
He referred to South Africa, where preferential procurement mechanisms were linked to corruption during investigations by the Judicial Commission of Inquiry into State Capture, known as the Zondo Commission.
Limited data on the performance of Namibia’s procurement system since the introduction of the current framework in 2017 poses challenges, Links said.
“There is very little data available about how the public procurement system functions and has performed over the years,” he said.
He highlighted the issue in the 2025 Methodology for Assessing Procurement Systems assessment of Namibia’s procurement framework.
“With limited data and persistent compliance failures, aggressively expanding preferential procurement could elevate governance risks rather than deliver the intended socio-economic benefits,” Links said.
