Govt earns a paltry N$162 million on Namdia’s N$2 billion diamond sales

The crash in the international diamond market in the first three months of this year, caused a dramatic decline in the volume of diamonds marketed by Namib Desert Diamonds (Namdia), leading to a 41% decrease in profit for the full financial year ended 31 March 2020.

Releasing their financial results earlier this week, Namdia said its after-tax profit reduced from N$161.9 million to N$95.2 million.

The government-owned entity still declared a dividend of N$80 million to its shareholder.

“In the last quarter of the [financial] year, in mid-January 2020, the diamond industry was profoundly, adversely impacted by the outbreak of COVID-19. The diamond centres worldwide closed and diamond trading declined sharply in February due to economic uncertainty surrounding the corona virus,” Namdia stated.

During the year, Namdia arranged ten sales totalling 253,073.37 carats for an average price of US$528.64 per carat. This gave Namdia revenues of about US$133 million or roughly N$2 billion.

From these proceeds, Namdia paid the government N$80 million as dividend, N$19 million as export levy and N$63 million in taxes. The company also donated N$15 million to the 2019 drought relief fund.

Despite their results, Namdia’s management still described its performance as “a good year.”

“The diamond industry remains resilient and will once again revamp itself together with the global economies. Namdia will continue to focus on delivering on its strategy in 2020, maintaining a disciplined approach to its mandate and sales strategy whilst working to grow its cashflow and returns,” the company stated.

The full Annual Report can be viewed at www.namdia.com.