Windhoek, Namibia – 21 May 2024 – Namibia Wildlife Resorts (NWR) Board and Management presented its annual report to the Ministry of Finance and Public Enterprises, Minister Ipumbu Shiimi, on the 20th of May 2023. The Honourable Minister of Environment, Forestry and Tourism, Hon. Pohamba Shifeta was also in attendance. The company proudly announced a historic N$46 million profit and a clean audit reports for two consecutive years, a testament to its unwavering commitment to effective governance and statutory compliance.
In a highly competitive environment, the company produced solid financial performance in 2023. Revenue increased by 32%, from N$294 million in 2022 to N$387 million. The overall bottom line was reduced by 231%, from a loss of (N$35) million in 2022 to a record profit of N$46 million in 2023.
Despite increasing inflation, fuel costs and repo rates during the year under review, operational expenses, excluding reversals on penalties and interest payments on statutory payments and loans settled, increased only by 7%, mainly driven by increased spending on repairs, renovations and maintenance of our facilities. The company continued to invest in our capital infrastructure. Repairs and maintenance was N$27 million [2022: N$23 million]. Maintaining our resorts and camps so as to improve customer experience and service delivery is one of NWR’s strategic intent.
The Managing Director, Dr Matthias Ngwangwama, was elevated by this positive news, remarking that “NWR continued to make good progress on its strategic value drivers of occupancy growth, revenue, expenses management, profitability and improvements on the balance sheet. The solid financial performance in 2023 and ever-improving profit and balance sheet metrics is a demonstration of our commitment to our national mandate of providing tourism-related services in national parks of Namibia and being an important government arm through which the tourism national objectives are to be met in line with its founding Act, the Namibia Wildlife Resorts Company Act (Act 3 of 1998)”.
On his turn, the Board Chairperson stated that, “Our financial performance continued to show resilience in 2023. In particular, long-term loans, statutory loans to financial development and commercial institutions, and tax authorities, which were long-standing challenges in the past, were fully settled in 2023, and the company attained a long-term debt-free status. We demonstrated that it is possible to achieve positive results in the public enterprises domain”.
NWR’s Annual Financial Statements are up to date, and an unqualified audit opinion was achieved for the 2023 statements, like in the previous year, 2022. This achievement reflects the hard work and dedication of the entire NWR team and underscores the company’s commitment to improved governance, transparency, and accountability.
Overall, NWR’s Annual Report reflects a commitment to excellence in all areas of its operations. The company remains dedicated to providing exceptional service to its guests while upholding the highest corporate responsibility and accountability standards.
