Namib Desert Diamonds (Namdia) on Monday announced that its profits from diamond sales after tax increased from N.dollars 144.7 million in 2021/2022 to N.dollars 409.2 million in 2022/2023.
Namdia Chief Operations Officer, Uahoroka Kauta in a presentation during a media day event said Namdia not only sells diamonds, but also changes lives.
“One of our focus areas is funding Namibia as a whole’s education, health and sports. As a result, Namdia has invested over N.dollars 40 million in various impact programmes,” Kauta said.
Notable beneficiaries of the programmes include the Namibia National Olympic Committee and the Council of Southern Africa Football Associations (Cosafa) Cup and Africa Cup of Nations Cup events. Namdia also constructed an oxygen generation plant at Mariental State Hospital, and helped to develop the Namibia University of Science and Technology (Nust) Eenhana Campus.
Namdia’s Chief Executive Officer, Alisa Amupolo further highlighted the company’s unique selling proposition, saying they exclusively offer 100 per cent non-aggregated diamonds.
“We are the only entity in the world that sells 100 per cent non-aggregated diamonds, which is one of the biggest highlights to emphasise. It is hard for buyers to buy natural diamonds when clients are experiencing inflation hence they buy alternative diamonds, referred to as synthetic diamonds as their prices continue to devaluate due to low quality,” Amupolo said.
Looking ahead, Namdia plans to conduct a competitive bidding process for 100 per cent of its diamonds from 2023 to 2026.
Lelly Usiku, Namdia’s Executive Marketing and Development, Sales and Branding, explained that this process will prioritise client enrolment and favour Namibian partly-owned companies.
With 36 registered diamond clients, including countries like Belgium, the United Arab Emirates, India, the United States of America, and Namibia on a 3-year renewal basis, Namdia aims to strengthen its presence in the downstream market and enhance expertise and capacity-building in the value chain.
“Our mandate is to create a Namibian footprint on the downstream market, to develop Namibian expertise and to build capacity in the entire value chain,” Usiku said.
Source: The Namibian Press Agency