Namibia Post and Telecommunications Holdings (NPTH) declared special dividends of N$500 million to the government on Thursday. Speaking at the official handover in the capital, Minister of Information and Communication Technology Stanley Simataa said NPTH and its subsidiaries are some of the few State-Owned Enterprises (SOEs) that declared a special dividend to its shareholder despite the economic situation Namibia faces. “We are all aware that it is not Namibia alone, all countries all over the world are operating under very difficult and challenging economic environments. These are huge challenges that we are in as a government,” he said. Simataa added that since the establishment of NPTH, it has paid dividends amounting to N$1.3 billion, excluding Thursday’s N$500 million, to the Namibian Government, serving the purpose of its establishment. In addition to the special dividends, NPTH also donated N$60 million towards the drought relief fund in July 2019. The minister called on commercial SOEs that have not paid dividends to the government yet, to emulate the example set by NPTH. “SOEs are not set up to drain the government of much-needed resources that we need to channel through social and economic sectors. These enterprises are supposed to operate economically, be able to sustain their operations and above all, create value for the shareholders,” Simataa said. NPTH Chairperson Lena Kangandjela concurred with Simataa, saying the declaration of dividends is a response to Government’s call to derive value from the operations of SOEs. Local reports last week said the government had asked state-owned businesses to declare special dividends to sustain its operations, which would enable the government to borrow less from the market. Special dividends refer to an additional dividend beyond the regular annual dividend declared by SOEs. -NAMPA