Move more development finance onshore

FNB Namibia’s corporate and investment banking arm, RMB Namibia, has unique investor relationships in offshore markets which provide it with a strong distribution and syndication capability.

On the eve of the annual Chamber of Mines expo, RMB Namibia’s Chief Executive Officer, Steve Galloway highlights the need for more domestic participation in financing capital projects that are currently in the conceptualisation phase.
Says Galloway, “We keep talking of an N$100 billion pipeline of real projects, mainly in the energy, infrastructure and mining sectors respectively. There is no reason why local financing options could not do 30% or more of that. The government and state-owned enterprises talk of a project pipeline extending to between N$200 billion and N$300 billion if we include the large regional port and rail projects. These will extend over a 10 to15 year time frame and will require substantial development funding by regional and global Development Finance Institutions.”
Proof of that is the visible synergy between the government’s strategy and that of RMB. “We have tailored our business plan to support the government’s strategy in many ways. To remain a top economy in Africa in mining and infrastructure rankings, we need to continue to support the government in its capital raising efforts. We also need to complement their funding of large projects through mobilization of local funding and effective Public-Private Partnership structuring. This will create more space for the government to continue to prioritise social spending.”
“RMB tends to focus on the large corporates and state-owned enterprises and therefore has a preference for big projects in the resources, infrastructure, energy and real estate sectors,” adds Galloway.
According to Galloway, RMB has a range of products to hedge interest, currency, commodity, fuel and other risks. “It is a very specialised field where we have the best skills available to advise us and our clients on tailored strategies, appropriate for market conditions at any time. We obviously also have risk mitigants in respect of single party limits to large corporates or projects, sector limits and the likes.”