Namdia set to sparkle

It is only a matter of time before Namibia can cement its position as a leading diamond manufacturer according to newly appointed Namdia CEO, Kennedy Hamutenya.According to him, Namibia is now in a position to create a strong diamond brand that will resonate well with the rich and famous. He made the comments during a recent sit-down with Namibian Sun to share his vision for the newly established public enterprise. “We want to be able to go to Atlanta and sell diamonds to Puff Daddy, to Nicki Minaj, to the Queen of England, to the Sultan of Dubai,” he said.“We want to create our brand. We want to create relationships with people already vertically integrated in the market that have strong brands. People like Gucci, it could be Versace, and it could be anybody. We want to have a presence when people are buying diamonds in Beverly Hills and people can say these diamonds come from Namibia. This is why we want to create that footprint.”Hamutenya was last week confirmed as the substantive Namdia CEO for the next five years.He said the diamond marketing parastatal will be going straight to the market instead of using De Beers as a middleman. Namibia first“Namdia is not about selling to make quick bucks for anybody. Namdia is a company that will be selling diamonds on behalf of government. We mine our diamonds and give to other people to sell. Now we are doing this, ourselves. This is the first time we have a sovereign right to sell our diamonds,” he added.“Instead of relying on De Beers to tell us what the price is, we are now going to Dubai, we are going to Mumbai, and we are going to New York. We are going to the market ourselves to sell diamonds. We are going to have a footprint of our diamonds in the market. For the first time, we are going to sell a purely Namibian product unmixed with any other product of the market.”According to him, Namibian diamonds were always mixed in with lower quality gem stones which meant that the full price benefit was never enjoyed. “You must remember when De Beers is selling a diamond they mix them with diamonds from Botswana, with diamonds from South Africa, with diamonds from Canada. That means low quality diamonds from other countries are mixed with our diamonds. We have the highest value per carat ranging from some US$500 to US$700 a carat in the market. Why, because of the high gem quality nature of our diamonds,” said Hamutenya. OriginalHe said the creation of Namdia now also meant that locally mined diamonds would not easily be linked to conflict. “With a Namdia brand we are able to give assurance and confidence that this product was mined in Namibia, it was not a product that was mined using child labour, it is an ethical product because we can guarantee where it is coming from and that it is not contaminated,” said Hamutenya adding, “we can also guarantee that it is not a synthetic diamond that was made in a laboratory.”Hamutenya said Namdia will also be able to inform government on diamond policy in future. “The information that we gather, the intelligence market and pricing information and the pricing information that we get from Namdia, we will file it back to government and it will inform future policy imperatives for government. Tomorrow we will know what to do with the 85%,” said Hamutenya.He said the diamond business is always connected to negativity, a narrative he is intent on changing. “Because of the luxurious nature of the product and because of the bad legacy of apartheid, people just want to write a negative narrative,” said Hamutenya.“We've only operated for seven months and our annual report is ready, our first annual report. In seven months we've already made profit of N$70 million and we have paid tax of some N$30 million yet people say that we are underselling. How is that possible that we have made profit of more than N$70 million that we will announce in our annual report? This in seven months already,” he said. According to him, Namdia had been in the pipeline for some time.“When I was the chief negotiator for De Beers, we had terms of reference and Namdia is one of the things we were asked to create. It is not something new. Namdia is a sovereign price-checking vehicle of the government created by a cabinet resolution. Namdia is not something new. Russia has Alrosa, Angola has Endiama and Botswana has Okavango Diamond. I will tell you that it is not a new concept, except we are tailor-made to fit Namibia's needs.”He refuted allegations that Namdia was underselling diamonds in the market. “Why would I go and borrow money from the bank, buy diamonds from Namdeb and sell it at a discount? Why would I sell luxury at a discount? That is a fantasy and figment of people's imagination. Why would I destroy the brand of my company that I am just starting, why would we start by selling ourselves short?” questioned Hamutenya.He questioned why nobody has asked De Beers where they sell the diamonds and who they have sold the gems to. “Why is De Beers not subjected to the same scrutiny? Why are they not following the 85% of the diamonds De Beers is selling? We are only selling 15% and nobody is asking questions about the 85% sold by De Beers,” Hamutenya ridiculed. NAMENE HELMICH

Namdia set to sparkle

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Namibian Sun 2025-07-02

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Namdia set to sparkle

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Namibian Sun 2025-07-02

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