ICT POLICIES OF NAMIBIA
VISION
To transform Namibia into a knowledge-based,
highly competitive, industrialised and eco-friendly
nation, with sustainable economic growth and
high quality of life by 2030.
MISSION
To ensure that every citizen and resident shall
have affordable access to high quality information
and communication services.
ICT POLICIES OF NAMIBIA
TELECOM & IT OBJECTIVES
• To enhance the market and regulatory structures of ICT in
Namibia, and to fully liberalise all telecommunications services
• To establish streamlined, efficient and effective regulation of
the ICT industry on a fully transparent, technology neutral and
competitively balanced basis
• To provide universal access to information and communication
facilities in Namibia for all
• To enable affordable prices for telecommunications services,
particularly low income groups
• To enable profitable investment opportunities in all segments
of the market
• To successfully implement Government ICT initiatives in
education and training and successfully implement egovernment initiatives
• To establish Namibia as a first class regional ICT hub that will
contribute towards job creation.
ICT POLICIES OF NAMIBIA
BROADCASTING OBJECTIVES
• Entrench freedom of expression, pluralism, diversity and competition
• Protect media users, and particularly the vulnerable, against unwanted
and involuntary exposure to offensive and harmful material
• Foster provision of services to all Namibians in appropriate languages
• Foster economic development of the electronic media and tradable
information sectors.
POSTAL OBJECTIVES
• Ensure high quality postal services are offered at reasonable prices and a
universal service, with uniform tariffs, is provided
• Sustain and further enhance postal services which satisfy the needs of
business and individual consumers at affordable prices
• Create a postal service, which is able to succeed in increasingly
demanding national and international markets
• Re-regulation and partial liberalisation of the postal market.
ICT POLICIES OF NAMIBIA
MAJOR POLICY INITIATIVES
• Universal access
• International bandwidth costs
• Internet access
• Education and training
• Information security and privacy
• Electronic Government (e–government)
• Electronic connectivity (e-connectivity)
• Foreign ICT skills
• Reduction of ICT emission levels
• Control of ICT waste
ICT POLICIES OF NAMIBIA
TELECOMS
Interconnection
• Individual licensees must allow any other licensee to interconnect its
services and network.
• The party providing interconnection and / or facility leasing must
provide services that are sufficiently unbundled.
• The Regulatory Authority may prescribe benchmark charges for
interconnection.
• Facility and network licensees must upon request lease facilities to other
licensed network operators.
• Shared access is required from all facility licensees unless such a request
is technically or financially infeasible.
• The Government promotes the utilisation of all telecommunications
sites and backbone networks in the development of the
telecommunications sector.
ICT POLICIES OF NAMIBIA
TELECOMS
Numbering
• The Regulatory Authority must review the numbering
plan in the interest of making more numbers available to
duly licensed operators.
• An end user has the right to keep the same telephone
number.
• The Regulatory Authority is required to introduce a
numbering regime that:
 Increases consumer choice and competition
Supports international standards.
ICT POLICIES OF NAMIBIA
TELECOMS
Universal service
• All telecommunications providers are required to
contribute to the provision of universal service.
• The Government will establish a Universal Service Fund
(USF) to fund the provision of services to unprofitable
areas.
• Operators are encouraged to roll out services to high
cost areas and qualifying public institutions.
• The Government leads initiatives to increase broadband
penetration to provide Internet access in Namibia.
ICT POLICIES OF NAMIBIA
TELECOMS
Internet
• The Government aims to stimulate the market for
bundled personal computer and telecommunications
services to increase uptake through access to funds from
the USF.
• Government promotes the mass market roll out of
Internet services, through a price review of the pricing
components.
ICT POLICIES OF NAMIBIA
TELECOMS
IP telephony
• Government recognises IP telephonically (e.g. VoIP) as a
complementary service to public service telephony.
• An IP telephony distinction is made between technology
that transports information and a specific service that
sells voice.
ICT POLICIES OF NAMIBIA
TELECOMS
International bandwidth
• The Government creates a market structure that
facilitates the reduction of international bandwidth
prices through the establishment of competition in the
telecommunications sector.
Government funding and incentives
• The Government will assist with the funding of ICT
projects and programmes that will contribute to ICT
access, skills development, international bandwidth and
local content development.
ICT POLICIES OF NAMIBIA
INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY
Competition
• The Government will create an equitable, fair, just and
competitive environment based on the principles of the free
market and open unfettered access to products and services.
Consumer protection and standards
• The Government promotes efficient and reliable services that
conform to international technical and quality standards.
• The Government promotes professional standards and ethical
practices in the Namibian ICT industry
through self regulation.
ICT POLICIES OF NAMIBIA
INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY
Foreign participation and skills
• Foreign investors are encouraged to enter and assist in building
and developing the Namibian ICT industry.
• The Government actively seeks to facilitate the acquisition of ICT
skills from outside Namibia.
Small and medium enterprises
• The Government recognises entrepreneurship and Small and
Medium Enterprises (SMEs) as important contributors to economic
growth and job creation. The Government will therefore support
new ventures and SMEs.
ICT POLICIES OF NAMIBIA
INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY
Electronic transactions and electronic commerce
• Namibia embraces electronic transactions and electronic
commerce (e - commerce) as mechanisms to participate in the
increasingly global information society.
Information security and privacy
• The Government promotes legislation for information security,
data protection and the protection of privacy.
• ICT and telecommunications licensees have an obligation to
protect subscriber privacy and comply with international standards.
ICT POLICIES OF NAMIBIA
INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY
Fair Use and Creative Commons licensing
• The Namibian law will be investigated to create more fair use in
copyright laws. Creative Commons licenses by non profit and public
sector bodies grant baseline rights such as the right to distributed
copyrighted work.
Electronic Government (e–government)
• The Government promotes the use of electronic means to
facilitate interaction between Government and public, as well as to
improve the Government’s own internal operations to enhance
service delivery and democratic participation.
• Government services will be accessed free of charge through
established Information Kiosks within integrated Multi - Purpose
Regional Community Parks.
ICT POLICIES OF NAMIBIA
INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY
Electronic connectivity (e-connectivity)
• The Government subscribes to the provision of a reliable, realtime, secure two way interactive connection with its constituents –
and within Government internally.
Information and infrastructure sharing
• The Government promotes the sharing of information and
infrastructure between Government Ministries, Regional and Local
Authorities for the purposes of national planning, coordination and
development.
ICT POLICIES OF NAMIBIA
INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY
Open Source software
• The Namibian Government supports all operating system
platforms.
• The Government promotes access to Open Source (FLOSS) and
proprietary operating systems in schools in Namibia.
.na Top Level Domain (ccTLD)
• Top level domain administration (.na) must be administered by a
central institution established or recognised by an Act of
Parliament.
• No person may update a repository or administer a second level
domain unless such a person is licensed to do so by the Association.
ICT POLICIES OF NAMIBIA
INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY
Education
• The Government will stimulate the development of the ICT skills
through the establishment of ICT Centres of Excellence at centres of
further learning.
• The Government will include IT training as part of the educational
curricula, starting from primary school level.
• The Government aims to facilitate the establishment of
institutions of ICT learning in smaller towns.
Skills development
• The Government will provide tax incentives for ICT skills
development by the private sector.
ICT POLICIES OF NAMIBIA
INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY
Reduction of ICT emission levels
• The Government determines safe levels for emission and ensures
that emissions do not exceed a limit beyond which exposure
becomes harmful to the population.
Reduction of ICT emission levels
• The Government determines safe levels for emission and ensures
that emissions do not exceed a limit beyond which exposure
becomes harmful to the population.
• The Government appreciates foreign assistance in developing the
use of ICT in Namibia. However
ICT POLICIES OF NAMIBIA
BROADCASTING
Competition
• The Government will create an equitable, fair, just and
competitive environment based on the principles
of the free market and open unfettered access to products and
services.
Consumer protection and standards
• The Government promotes efficient, reliable and ethical services
that conform to international technical and quality standards.
Ownership and foreign participation
• The Namibian Government encourages foreign participation in the
broadcasting sector.
ICT POLICIES OF NAMIBIA
BROADCASTING
Cross media ownership
• The Government of Namibia accepts cross - media ownership
within defined checks and balances which include defined cross media limitations, licence area limits, directorship limitations,
limitations on controland ownership by foreign persons; sale of
public shares; and other qualifications (as required).
Pluralism and diversity
• Namibia aims to establish a broadcasting and content regime that
ensures the objectives defined in the African Charter on
Broadcasting and inform the Declaration of Principles on Freedom
of Expression in Africa underpin Namibian broadcasting policy.
ICT POLICIES OF NAMIBIA
BROADCASTING
Positive and negative regulation
•The Government will implement a regulatory framework which
distinguishes between positive and negative regulation.
Regulation for ‘push’ and ‘pull’ media
• Regulation will distinguish between the measures appropriate for
content and services consciously sought out and chosen by users
(‘pull’ media) and those where choice and control cannot be
exercised so effectively (’push’ media).
Content regulation
• All content providers will be subject to relevant Namibian law.
• The Government of Namibia encourages local programming
content such as news, local affairs and listener participation.
ICT POLICIES OF NAMIBIA
BROADCASTING
Self-regulation
• Namibian broadcasters, in conjunction with the Regulatory
Authority, will be responsible for developing
self - regulatory codes.
• To give effect to Namibia’s policy on self - regulation, the
Regulatory Authority will receive and adjudicate complaints that
have not been resolved by the ‘push’ broadcaster to the satisfaction
of the complainant.
Self-regulatory agency
• Government encourages broadcasters and media to establish a
self - regulatory agency to formulate, revise and update codes and
to undertake adjudication of complaints.
ICT POLICIES OF NAMIBIA
BROADCASTING
Media ombudsmen
• To give effect to Namibia’s policy on self - regulation, the primary
responsibility for the implementation of self – regulation rests with
broadcasters. Independent spokespersons, often called readers’
editors or media ombudsmen, need to be appointed to advance the
interests of users.
Legacy radio frequency spectrum users and grandfathering
• The Government distinguishes between services and spectrum
licence ownership.
• Established ‘legacy’ users of Namibia’s radio frequencies will be
licensed on a ‘grandfathered’ basis for a period of five years for
radio and eight for television licences after which the spectrum will
revert to the Namibian State.
ICT POLICIES OF NAMIBIA
BROADCASTING
Facility sharing, co-location and rights of way
• Facility and network licensees, in the interests of making efficient
use of facilities or networks, must upon request lease facilities (for
example poles, ducts) to other licensed network operators.
• Shared access is required from all facility licensees unless such a
request is technically or financially infeasible.
• Facility licensees must obtain rights of way, servitudes and / or
way leaves to dig trenches or plant poles for cable systems and
place facility infrastructure over land owned by another.
Digital switchover
• The Regulatory Authority, in consultation with broadcasters and
other interested parties, will develop and implement an analogue /
digital television switchover plan.
ICT POLICIES OF NAMIBIA
BROADCASTING
Support for national content
• The Government will establish a Universal Service Fund (USF) to,
inter alia, assist with content production by local broadcasters in
Namibia.
• The Government will incentivise both local and foreign
productions using Namibia as a location through tax rebates.
• The Government will continue to support the Film Development
Fund, which aims to develop local film production.
• Two thirds of the Public Broadcaster’s content is required to be of
Namibian origin.
National provision of services
• The Public Broadcaster is obliged to provide services to all parts of
Namibia.
ICT POLICIES OF NAMIBIA
BROADCASTING
Skills development
• The Government will stimulate the development of the content
production skills through the establishment of Centres of Excellence
at centres of further learning. Government will allocate funds
toward the development of study centres at tertiary level. Where
possible, Government will form partnerships with industry to
develop content production skills in Namibia.
•The commitment to the development of local skills will be a
condition to tax rebates for both local and foreign productions
using Namibia as a location.
ICT POLICIES OF NAMIBIA
BROADCASTING
Public broadcasting
• The Namibian Broadcasting Corporation (NBC) will enhance its
capacity to be a public service broadcaster, charged with editorial
independence and with providing Namibians with a diverse range
of high quality programmes with a suitable proportion of local
content.
Commercial and community broadcasting sectors
• The Government will continue to encourage commercial and
community broadcasting.
ICT POLICIES OF NAMIBIA
POSTAL SECTOR
Competition
• The Government will create an equitable, fair, just and
competitive environment based on the principles of the free
market and open, unfettered access to products and services.
• All postal operators will be subject to a licence fee payable
annually. In addition, a once off market entry fee will be levied.
• Government recognises that the growth in electronic
telecommunications has expanded the communications market,
reducing the postal services’ percentage of market share drastically
and threatening the volumes of the current postal services
ICT POLICIES OF NAMIBIA
POSTAL SECTOR
Customer protection and standards
• The Government promotes efficient and reliable services that
conform to international technical and quality standards.
• The Regulatory Authority will establish service standards and
product definitions for the designated postal operator that ensure
harmonisation of national mail systems with international
networks.
Regulatory framework
•The regulatory framework will focus on the re–regulation of the
postal sector, i.e. tight regulations (where required) combined with
a generally less prescriptive and efficient framework avoiding over
regulation and avoiding the creation of administrative burdens.
ICT POLICIES OF NAMIBIA
POSTAL SECTOR
Investment in the postal sector
• The development and sustainability of the postal sector depends,
to a large extent, on the availability of funding and investments.
Ownership and foreign participation
• The Namibian Government encourages foreign participation in the
postal sector.
Universal postal service
• The Government has a fundamental obligation to ensure that a
universal postal service, particularly within the rural areas, exist even though these services may not be commercially viable.
• The Regulatory Authority will issue a licence to the designated
postal operator with set terms on which a Universal Service
Obligation (USO) is imposed.
ICT POLICIES OF NAMIBIA
POSTAL SECTOR
Universal postal service
• The Government will subsidise loss making services resulting from
the designated postal operator’s universal service obligation.
•The Government promotes more effective utilisation of postal
infrastructure to serve as points of access to the global information
society and will utilise this infrastructure post offices as MultiPurpose Community Centres for ICT services where deemed
necessary.
Reserved services
• The Government realises that the designated postal operator is
faced with both direct and indirect competition and needs to be
protected to deliver a universal service.
ICT POLICIES OF NAMIBIA
POSTAL SECTOR
Reserved services
•In order to ensure the provision of universal service, the
Government will give the universal service provider exclusive or
monopoly protection in reserved services of the postal markets.
•The tariffs applicable to reserved postal services shall be set by the
designated postal operator according to the guidelines established
by the Regulatory Authority.
ICT POLICIES OF NAMIBIA
POSTAL SECTOR
Reserved services
• The designated postal operator shall not cross-subsidise the prices of
any service it offers in the market for un-reserved postal services from
the sales revenue of reserved postal services.
• Only the designated postal operator is allowed to issue postage
stamps. This includes definitive, commemorative, special and
electronic stamps.
• The Regulatory Authority will set standards for the universal service
provider, and impose conditions through a licence agreement, for
reserved services.
• The designated postal operator will be subject to a performance
contract that specifies the scope and standards of the service, and
penalties for not providing the universal postal products and services
to these standards.
ICT POLICIES OF NAMIBIA
POSTAL SECTOR
Interconnection
• The Government promotes the provision of interconnection
facilities for mail presented by other licensed operators on
commercial terms so as to provide a seamless postal service to all
locations in Namibia.
• Interconnection applies to linking with operators who provide
postal networks or services in order to allow the users of one
operator to deliver services to the users of another operator and to
access services provided by another operator, where specific
commitments are undertaken.
• Any postal network should be fully accessible to any other postal
operator in a non-discriminatory manner, while protecting the
privacy of both parties.
ICT POLICIES OF NAMIBIA
POSTAL SECTOR
Mail house operators and mail consolidators
•Mail house operators and mail consolidators shall comply with Universal
Postal Union guidelines on remailing, be subject to monitoring by the
Regulator with regard to trading practices and agreed-to service
standards; be subject to licensing by the Regulator in order to operate
within Namibia; and honour the reserved’ benefits conferred on the
public postal operator.
Extra Territorial Offices of Exchange (ETOEs)
• Mail house operators, mail consolidators and extra territorial offices of
exchange shall comply with Universal Postal Union guidelines on remailing, be subject to monitoring by the Regulator with regard to trading
practices and agreed-to service standards; be subject to licensing by the
Regulator in order to operate within Namibia; and honour the ‘reserved’
benefits conferred on the designated postal operator.
ICT POLICIES OF NAMIBIA
POSTAL SECTOR
Postal security
• The Government will develop and adopt specific postal laws, regulations
and measures to ensure the security and integrity of the postal system.
• The designated postal operator will ensure the integrity of mail and
protect employees, property, business interests and clients against
criminal activities. This will enhance the quality of service and image of
the designated postal operator.
• The designated postal operator will develop a crime prevention and
investigation strategy in consultation with all stakeholders in the postal
service.
• Postal articles may be subjected to examination without opening
through the use of detection devices. This will be in line with applicable
national legislation and will therefore not involve a breach of privacy.
ICT POLICIES OF NAMIBIA
POSTAL SECTOR
Licensing regime
• The Regulatory Authority will issue a concession to delegate public
postal operations. This will grant the designated postal operator
exclusive privileges for a determined period of time. At the end of
the stipulated period, the concession agreement and conditions will
be reviewed.
• All new entrants into the postal market will be subject to licensing
conditions as set by the Regulatory Authority.
Postal service impact of technological advances
• The Government recognises technological innovation and the
application of new technology in the postal market as indirect
ICT POLICIES OF NAMIBIA
POSTAL SECTOR
Postal service impact of technological advances
• The Government recognises Hybrid Electronic Services (e.g.
Volume Electronic Mail – VEM, Hybrid Data Interchange service and
Electronic Document Interchange - EDI) as complementary services
to postal services.
International postal relations
•The Government aims to ensure the smooth functioning of the
vast global postal networks, and a close cooperation between
different countries in the international postal sector.
ICT POLICIES OF NAMIBIA
POSTAL SECTOR
Cooperation and interaction among stakeholders
• The Government aims to strengthen and broaden cooperation
and interaction among the stakeholders of the postal sector.
Skills development
•The Government will provide incentives for ICT skills development
by the private sector.
Postal services and the environment
• The Government is committed to environmental development and
sustainability, and will thus ensure that all responsibilities and
duties within the postal sector will be implemented with the least
possible impact on the environment.
ICT POLICIES OF NAMIBIA
POSTAL SECTOR
Postal services and the environment
• In the Government’s efforts to protect the environment, the
Government promotes the implementation of an environmental
policy in the postal sector. The policy will be aligned with 'Beijing
Declaration on Environmental Protection.
ICT POLICIES OF NAMIBIA
I THANK YOU