Thursday, May 10, 2018

Angola to Pay Back N$600m by June
Business | 2018-05-07
by Sakeus Iikela
Namibian

THE Angolan central Bank is expected to pay its last instalment of N$600 million to the Bank of Namibia in June.

President Hage Geingob made the announcement on Friday during the commemoration of the 40th anniversary of Cassinga Day in Windhoek.

The N$600 million to be paid in June is part of the quarterly payments agreed between the two banks following the cancellation of a currency conversion agreement signed in 2014.

The Bank of Namibia and the Banco Nacional de Angola entered a currency conversion agreement in 2014 to allow the exchange of the Angolan kwanza for the Namibia dollar at the border towns of Oshikango and Santa Clara in an effort to maintain the momentum of business transactions between the two countries.

The agreement was, however, revoked following unforeseen challenges observed by the two central banks, including “exchanging of currencies outside the scope of the agreement”.

As a result, Angola ended up owing Namibia N$5 billion.

“I am pleased to announce that the central bank of Angola has honoured its commitment in terms of repaying the settlement of its obligations as agreed with the Bank of Namibia. Only an amount of US$51 million is outstanding and payable on 25 June this year,” the President said.

Geingob added that the N$600 million to be paid back will come “at the right time as we are currently recovering from an economic downturn”.

Angolan president Joao Lourenco was a guest of honour at the commemoration of Cassinga Day.

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