Botswana I Ethopia I The Gambia I Ghana I Kenya I Malawi I Mauritius I Namibia I Nigeria I Senegal I South Africa I Swaziland I Tanzania I Togo I Uganda I Zambia I Zimbabwe Namibia has benefited from soaring mineral prices – mining accounts for 20% of GDP – and GDP grew 3.5% in 2005. But the country’s strong performance continues to mask the world’s worst inequality of income distribution – a real threat to stability.
Standard Bank, which has operated in Namibia for 90 years, recognizes the country’s problems and is heavily involved in local charitable and development work. Indeed, it is committed to giving 1% of its after-tax profit towards funding social responsibility programmes. Standard Bank dominates the banking market and continues to grow steadily, with profits before tax increasing by 2.5% in 2005. In retail banking, Standard Bank achieved a number of notable goals including growing its home loans book to more than N$2 billion ($290 million) and its vehicle and asset finance book to more than N$1.3 billion. Meanwhile, all areas of corporate banking and structured finance performed well in 2005, with a balanced mix of income arising from net interest income, trading revenue as well as fee and other income.