29 April 2008
Windhoek — NamPower's involvement in information technology will soon come under the microscope, the Minister of Mines and Energy, Erkki Nghimtina, told Parliament last week.
Nghimtina was responding to concerns raised by the DTA's McHenry Venaani that the power utility was not concentrating on its work but doing things that were not core to its business.
Nghimtina said the new Minister of Information, Technology and Communication, Joel Kaapanda, had already undertaken to look into the issue with the view of finding a solution. When NamPower upgraded its power lines at the turn of the century, it set up lines with built-in fibre-optic cables that can be used for telecommunications too. The move was similar to the route taken by the South African power utility Eskom, which also entered the telecommunications market. NamPower subsequently used its subsidiary Powercom to enter the telecommunications market.
At that stage Namibia's telecommunications market only had one major player, the state-owned Telecom Namibia, which also has a stake in the country's only cellular service provider, MTC.
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