UNAM Gā-aisib Repository (University of Namibia)
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Strategies to ensure compliance with provisions of the Income Tax Act at the Inland Revenue Regional Office in Walvis Bay
No full textA thesis submitted in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the Degree of Master of Business Administration Management StrategyThis study focused on the strategies to ensure tax compliance at the Inland Revenue office
in Walvis Bay. The main objective of this study was to investigate what are the strategies
to ensure compliance with the provisions of the Income Tax Act in Namibia, taking the
Regional Office of IRD at Walvis Bay as a case. The sub objectives were to: to critically
ana lyse the current status of compliance by tax payers with the provisions of the Income
tax laws and the problems faced; to identify the factors hampering tax com pliance, to
determine the effectiveness of different measures in the context of tax compliance and to
come up with strategies for dealing with the problems and issues encountered.
Primary data was collected from the Walvis Bay individual taxpayers within the tax
bracket of 18% by means of questionnaires and by interviewing the executives. Secondary
data was collected from the reports of the Ministry of Finance and other documents that
provided information on factors hampering tax compliance, status of individual taxpayers'
compliance and strategies used by the authorities of the IRD to ensure tax compliance.
Statistical package for social sciences (SPSS), was used to create frequencies that were
used to generate descriptive statistics in the form of pie charts, graphs and tables for data
analysis and presentation to simplify the results and support the findings.
The majority of respondents (73%) pointed out that much needs to be completed in order
to advance the administration of tax matters to enhance and ensure tax compliance by
individual taxpayers at the Walvis Bay regional office. The effectiveness of the tax
compliance system arisen as main concern as highlighted by 63% of the respondents. The
sentiment was that the IRD office need to focus on improving the strategies in place in
order to enhance and ensure tax compliance by individual taxpayers w ith the provisions
of the Income Tax Act. carrying out audits and T ime ly, accurate disclosure of tax
information to taxpayers needs to be improved. The major recommendation from this
study was to urge the management at IRD Walvis Bay office to revisit their strategic
processes to ensure tax compliance of the individual tax payers with the provisions of the
Income Tax Ac
The contribution of corporate compliance on the performance and governance of the Namibia Institute of Pathology Limited
No full textA thesis submitted in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Business Administration (Management Strategy)The purpose of this study is to examine the contribution of corporate compliance on the
performance and governance of Namibia Institute ofPathology. The research investigated
the major corporate and institutional requirements that Namibia Institute of Pathology has
to adhere to including identifying compliance techniques and their effects thereof. The
research adopted pragmatism worldview, a philosophical assumption that arises out of
actions, situations, and consequences rather than post-positivism. The population of the
study was 93 respondents. The research used structured questionnaires to collect
quantitative primary data and an interview guide to collect qualitative data. Quantitative
data were analysed through descriptive and inferential statistics where as chi-square test
method was used to test the variables. Qualitative data were analysed through content
analysis, in which themes, sub-themes, and patterns that emerged from the study were
examined. The findings of the study indicated that National Health Act, 2015 (Act No.2
of 20 15) as a frame of reference for corporate governance has been doubtfully used by
Namibia Institute of Pathology to inform the structured uniform health system within
Namibia. The findings of this research further showed that there is a certain degree of
compliance especially to ISO 15189 with regard to quality standards; however to a certain
extent, the research fmdings did not reveal how the institute has enforced its responsibility
with regard to conformity with the codes, laws and rules. The research concludes that
Namibia Institute of Pathology has an ambivalent and undetermined approach in its
dealings with matters of corporate compliance and does not have a well-defined corporate
compliance program and the dedicated compliance department to drive the compliance
agenda. Therefore, this research recommends that monitoring and evaluation should be
done with the main purpose of compelling the administration to adhere to the set
institutional framework for corporate governance, that is the National Health Act, 2015
(Act No. 2 of 2015). It is further recommended that the NIP should establish and
strengthen policies and procedures aimed at ensuring compliance with disclosure
requirements as well as accountability at senior management level for the National Health
Act 201
Green synthesis of silver nanoparticles from extracts of Pechuel-loeschea leubnitziae: Their antiprol iferative activity against the U87 cell line
No full textThe application of green chemistry for the synthesis of nanoparticles is said to be environmentally friendly and cost efficient. The paper reports on the cell anti proliferative activity of Pechuelloeschea leubnitziae, synthesis of silver nanoparticles using P. leubnitziae and characterization. The UV–vis spectroscopy confirmed presence of a peak at 400 nm, and Fourier-transform infrared spectroscopy confirmed the presence of peaks from 700-4000 cm 1 correlating to AgNPs. Presence of silver, carbon and oxygen was confirmed by X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy and Energydispersive X-ray spectroscopy. Transmission electron microscopy showed a uniform spherical particle in the size of 100 nm, and scanning electron microscope showed spherical particles at a magnification of 100 mm. The extracts and the synthesized AgNPs were tested for cytotoxicity and anti-cancer activity against the Vero and U87 glioma cell lines. The results for both cell lines indicated that dichloromethane extract and AgNPs were cytotoxic and had potential anticancer properties
Caregivers'barriers to sustainable utilization of income generating funds for orphans and vulnerable children in the Oshikoto region of Namibia
No full textA thesis submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the Degree of Master of Education ( Lifelong Learning and Community Education)Globally, the concept of ―home-based caregivers‖ have mostly been used in the health sector to describe those caregivers that support the elderly people, the disabled, orphans and vulnerable children (OVC) as well as the HIV/AIDS and TB affected patients in hospitals and communities. In Namibia, the need for empowering the OVC is anchored in Namibia‘s long-term and midterm developmental plans such as Vision 2030, Harambee Prosperity Plan, National Development Plans (NDPs) and the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). The aim of this study was to explore the caregivers‘ barriers to sustainable utilization of income-generating funds for orphans and vulnerable children in Oshikoto Region, Namibia. The study addressed two research questions, namely: what are the caregivers‘ barriers to sustainable utilization of income-generating funds for orphans and vulnerable children in the Oshikoto Regions of Namibia; what strategies could be employed to address the caregivers‘ barriers to sustainable utilization of income-generating funds for orphans and vulnerable children in Oshikoto Region, Namibia.
The study employed a qualitative approach because it allowed the researcher to explore and better understand the complexity of a phenomenon under investigation. The target population of this study was all funded home-based caregivers‘ and Income Generation Activities (IGA) trainers in Oshikoto Region who have participated in the Ministry of Gender Equality and Child Welfare (MGECW) Income Generation Support Programme between 2007-2017. Cluster sampling was used to select a sample from thirteen regional constituencies. A mixture of semi-structured and open-ended questions helped the researcher to elicit information regarding participants‘ perceptions, experiences and feelings on barriers that hinder them from using the Income-Generation Fund sustainably. The data collected from the participants was analyzed following an inductive analytical process by extracting themes and categories that emerged from the data. The findings of the study revealed how IGA funds improved the livelihood of beneficiaries in Oshikoto Region. It appears that the funds provided amongst others, the following support for families and dependents: self-reliance, ability to buy food, school uniforms and the ability to pay schools fees and basic services. However, there were negative perceptions of the IGA. It seems that some beneficiaries did not find the IGA funds useful. 65 % of the participants explained that IGA funds were inadequate in terms of materials needed to start the projects while others asserted that their projects closed down because the IGA funds were not sufficient. The barriers that hinder the sustainable utilization of income-generating funds for OVC in Oshikoto Region are: lack of marketing; high competition; lack of initiatives; lack of self-driving effort; withdrawal from the group projects; lack of transport; lack of space for business operations; lack of capacity building opportunities; lack of start-up capital and lack of support for local products. The caregivers‘ views regarding the strategies that could be employed to address the barriers to sustainable utilization of income-generating funds for OVC in the Oshikoto Region concern the presence of control of duplication of services in one locality, the need for education and training, the introduction of mentorship programmes and funding agricultural activities. Caregivers also highlighted the need for on-going monitoring of projects, provision of incubators, value addition and review funding and need to fund renewable energy projects. The study concluded with recommendations aligned to the transformative paradigms and Asset-Based Community Development (ABCD) approach due to its focus on the need to change the status quo of IGA beneficiaries through the provision of educational opportunities
Optimisation of Ontaku/ Oshikundu: Pearl millet and sorghum malts quality and convinient premix development
No full textA research dissertation submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy in Science (Biochemistry)Oshikundu/Ontaku is a nonalcoholic, acidic, opaque fermented beverage. It is comprised of pearl millet (Pennisetum glaucum (L.) R. Br) meal/flour, commonly known as mahangu, malts of pearl millet or sorghum (Sorghum bicolour (L.) Moench) and/or brans (pearl millet). Brewing of oshikundu remains an art in households with no empirical improvement of a controlled fermentation flow process to give a consistent product. Some of the major limitations to the formal commercialisation of this brew are the absence of standardised malting process that gives a consistent malt quality and microbial safety. The lack of standard ingredient ratios (flour/meal: malt: water) of brewing. Also, the sedimentation of adjunct particles at the bottom (dreg), thus creating the difference in viscosity of oshikundu. Well-defined fermenting microorganisms are not used, and the preparation method still relays on a laborious time-consuming process. Therefore, this study investigated conditions for malting, reduction of dreg, identification of fermenting microorganisms and formulation of ingredient ratio for an improved preparation process. Grains used in the study were collected from Omahenene Agricultural Research Station (2015 harvest), of the Ministry of Agriculture, Water and Forestry. Pearl millet varieties Okashana 2 (SDMV 93032), Kantana (landrace) and Kangara (SDMV 92040), while sorghum varieties are Macia (SDS3220) and landrace commonly referred to as red sorghum. Malts of the two cereals were prepared by steeping in static water at 20-22oC for 2 hours wet and 2 hours air-rest for a total of 8 hours and germinated at 30oC. Malts were dried between 50-55oC for 24 hours. Cereals germinative energy was above 90% as recommended for sorghum by the European Brewery Convention. Malting loss was high up to 30% in pearl millet varieties and Macia. Crude protein and fibre were found to increase following malting. Reducing sugars were not detected in nongerminated pearl millet grains. Malts reducing sugars were statistically significant (p ≤ 0.05) between cereals. The malt reducing sugars was as follows Macia> Red sorghum> Kantana>Okashana 2 = Kangara. Malting resulted in significantly increased free amino nitrogen (FAN) content. Kantana had the highest FAN followed by Macia malt. No amylolytic activity was detected in nongerminated grains irrespective of the cereal. Pearl millet was found not to contain condensed tannins. Malts had an unacceptable high aerobic plate count load above 6.3 Log cfu/g or (2 × 107 cfu/g) as specified for Southern African sorghum malts. However, results show that the malts were not contaminated by Salmonella spp., Shigella and coliforms. Regulated mycotoxins in malts were found to be below the legal limits. Cereal malts are not of safety concern from coliforms and mycotoxins under these malting conditions. Oshikundu is likely fermented by lactic acid bacteria (Lactobacillus. plantarum, L. pentosus, L. acidifarinae, L. paraplantarum, L. spicheri, L. namurensis, L. zymae, L. fermentum, L. brevis, L. delbrueckii subsp bulgaricus, L. buncheri, Leuconostoc gurlium and Pediococcus acidilactici) and yeast (Saccharomyces cerevisiae and S. paradoxus). However, the dynamics of LAB and yeast during fermentation are not known. The use of smaller amounts of dry ingredients and pre-gelatinisation of pearl millet meal in the process of making oshikundu significantly decreases total solids. This suggests that the amount of suspended particles in oshikundu that tend to settle during storage can also be reduced through this route, in the absence of consumer acceptability test. The study demonstrated a creative formulation of a dry powder premix for brewing oshikundu. Preliminary sensory evaluation showed that panellists extremely liked the ease of preparation method, where only water was required to be added to the premix. The study demonstrated that malting pearl millet and sorghum grains under set conditions gave malts of acceptable quality (reducing sugars, free amino nitrogen, alpha and beta amylase activity, phenolic content, radical scavenging activity, mycotoxins and microbial load). Also, a lower amount of pre-gelatinised adjunct can be used to achieve the same yield of oshikundu and at the same time reduce dregs. Also, ingredient ratios were formulated by the use of dry ingredients premix for making oshikundu that was easy to prepare
The Namibian bioeconomy: Transformation to a sustainable society?
No full textWorldwide, bioeconomy is promoted as an ‘engine for sustainable development’. However, increasingly, the notion that ‘the bioeconomy’ will facilitate sustainable development per se is challenged. Based on the assumption that when leaving
the relations between ‘nature’ and ‘society’ unquestioned, inherent inequalities are rather reproduced than overcome, we draw upon a social-ecological framework to analyse the societal relations to nature in the Namibian bioeconomy.
In Namibia, with independence, an array of different benefit-sharing mechanisms have been developed to implement local participatory governance structure, which will be further streamlined under the newly introduced access and benefit-sharing law. Results show that despite efforts to facilitate a diversity-based bioeconomy, separating structures and trade-offs are persistent. Images of ‘nature’, like the ‘eternal Namibian landscape’, that draw upon colonial notions are frequently used to market indigenous natural products. Institutions to ‘nature’ that guarantee fair and equitable terms of trade are often only short-term and/or small-scale, e.g. as shown in the case of Devil’s claw, Hoodia and Namibian Myrrh. Even when perspectives cannot be assigned in a stereotypical way between user and provider, and instead, all actors refer to biodiversity and traditional knowledge as ‘welfare of the people’, ‘cultural heritage’, ‘input for R&D’, ‘community benefit, and ‘marketing tool’, a rational-instrumental reasoning tends to be favoured of a normative-ethical one. A more diversified awareness towards the dialectics entailed in the conception, making, and management of ‘nature’ potentially inhibiting an inclusive sustainable development is relevant at any theory-practice interface, including development
project-management and environmental policy-making
Seismic stratigraphy and burial history for source and reservour prediction in the Luderitz basin, license blocks 2412B and 2413B, offshore Namibia
No full textA thesis submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the Degree of Master of Science (Petroleum Geology)The Lüderitz Basin is one of the four Namibia’s offshore basins on the western African passive margin that evolved during continental break-up and subsequent opening of the South Atlantic during the late Jurassic and Cretaceous. It is considered as a hydrocarbon frontier that is largely under-explored with only one well (2513/8-1) drilled since the wake of hydrocarbon exploration along the Namibian offshore in the 1990s. Selected lines of the GPN13 2D seismic dataset on blocks 2412B/2413B and well 2513/8-1 were used to predict lithofacies in the basin based on seismic stratigraphic interpretation. A Wheeler diagram was constructed to obtain better insight into the time relationships of the depositional systems, and their relationships to surfaces of non-deposition, condensation and erosion. In addition, two model well locations were selected in the basin, one on the shelf and the other at the base of slope. The Cretaceous and Tertiary succession was divided into 19 Seismic Intervals (SI) based on the recognition of 11 seismic stratigraphic surface. As no direct well tie calibration could be carried out the assigning of stratigraphic ages required comparison of the GPN13 lines with interpretations from neigbouring areas contained in previously studies. Lithofacies were predicted based on seismic facies, system tracts, and analogue interpretations presented in publications on studies of neighboring areas. The lithology model proposes the presence of several source, reservoir and seal rock units in both, the syn-rift and post-rift succesions of the study area. The modelled thermal history suggests that potential Lower Cretaceous source rocks may have generated petroleum only at locations of thick overburden, such as the base of slope location
Green synthesis of silver nanoparticles from extracts of Pechuel-loeschea leubnitziae: Their antiproliferative activity against the U87 cell line
No full textThe application of green chemistry for the synthesis of nanoparticles is said to be environmentally friendly and cost efficient. The paper reports on the cell anti-proliferative activity of Pechuelloeschea leubnitziae, synthesis of silver nanoparticles using P. leubnitziae and characterization. The UV–vis spectroscopy confirmed presence of a peak at 400 nm, and Fourier-transform infrared spectroscopy confirmed the presence of peaks from 700-4000 cm 1 correlating to AgNPs. Presence of silver, carbon and oxygen was confirmed by X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy and Energydispersive X-ray spectroscopy. Transmission electron microscopy showed a uniform spherical particle in the size of 100 nm, and scanning electron microscope showed spherical particles at a magnification of 100 mm. The extracts and the synthesized AgNPs were tested for cytotoxicity and anti-cancer activity against the Vero and U87 glioma cell lines. The results for both cell lines indicated that dichloromethane extract and AgNPs were cytotoxic and had potential anticancer properties
A comparative appraisal analysis of political news in The Namibia and New Era newspapers from 2015 to 2018
No full textA thesis submitted in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the Degree of Master of Arts in English StudiesThe thesis is a comparative Appraisal analysis of political news from two Namibian English newspapers (The Namibian and New Era), particularly focusing examining the propagation of journalistic attitudinal biases in political ‘hard news’ stories and journalistic ‘objectivity’. The research compares the textual structures of news reports from the English language reporting Namibian newspapers (The Namibian and New Era), during the period January 2015 - December 2018. It is a time in which the country was grappling with a varied number of concerns which split the nation on political grounds. Such a split based on political ideology seems to have trickled down into main stream media and hence creating a very interesting polarity of the media. For example, during this period and beyond, the nation faces unresolved land disputes which are framed in economic crisis, elections, economic woes and social ethnic division. The polarity of the Namibian media on political lines creates occasions where one issue is projected differently in different newspapers. Utilizing Appraisal Theory, in particular the ‘reporter voice’ configuration, the research analyses the nature of reporter biases in political hard news, The texts were textually analysed in terms of their adherence, or lack of it thereof, to the concerns of the “reporter voice configuration”. The research observes that Namibian newspapers, specifically The Namibian and New Era political reports in English, commonly exhibit cases of deliberate, albeit veiled, biases
An investigation of the determinants of public investments in Namibia
No full textA thesis submitted in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the Degree of Master of Science in EconomicsThis study investigated the determinants of public investment in Namibia. Time-series techniques such as unit root test, cointegration, and Autoregressive Distributed Lag (ARDL) approach were applied on quarterly data for the period 1990: Q1 to 2017: Q4. The results based on the unit root test showed that the variables are integrated of order zero and one, meaning that they are stationary in a level and first difference. The empirical results showed that real interest rate, unemployment rate, and real GDP are significant in explaining the percentage of public investment to GDP. Whereas, inflation and foreign direct investment are insignificant in explaining the percentage of public investment to GDP. The real gross domestic products lag 4 as well as unemployment rate lag 4 were all found to be significant in explaining the percentage of public investment to GDP in Namibia. The results also indicated that there is a negative relationship between unemployment and the percentage of public investment to GDP. In this regard, the study recommends that it would be a good idea to include investment policy incentives as part and parcel of the strategies that are used in the promotion of the country’s public investments