We have settled our debt – Schlettwein

FINANCE minister Calle Schlettwein says the ministry this week finally paid the last N$230 million of the N$3 billion it owed contractors across all sectors.

Schlettwein's comments follow a commitment by President Hage Geingob last month to settle all outstanding invoices government owed, including to the construction industry, by the end of this month. The international ratings agency, Moody's Investors Service, recently revised Namibia's credit risk outlook from stable to negative, while affirming the country's long-term issuer and senior unsecured ratings. Moody's based their ratings on the country's increasing debt burden, among other factors. The Namibian also reported in May that the construction industry was begging the government to pay its N$1,8 billion outstanding debt for work already done, stating that one-third of workers from the sector had already been retrenched because of the depressed conditions.