Finance minister Ipumbu Shiimi said the auctioning of the government’s objective fishing quota raised N$8,4m.
This figure is a far cry from N$600m which the government had earlier said would be raised through an auction.
The fish species that were auctioned were 11 000 metric tonnes of Hake; 72 000 metric tonnes of Horse Mackerel and 392 metric tonnes of Monk.
The auction process was managed by a Technical Committee comprises of senior officials from the Ministry of Finance, Ministry of Fisheries and Marine and Resources, National Planning Commission, Central Procurement Board, Ministry of Works and Transport and Office of the Attorney General.
The first round of the auction process was implemented between 17 August 2020 and 9 September 2020.
Fifty-two companies participated in the auction, out of which 13 emerged as the highest successful bidders.
The successful bidders from the first round of the auction were awarded bids valued at a collective amount of N$627.9m.
The bidders were expected to settle their allocations by 2 September 2020.
“As the deadline for payments by the highest successful bidders in the first round of the auction was coming close, most of them requested for an
extension of the deadline for payment and/or harvesting season,” Shiimi said.
He added that even though the deadline could be extended for payment, bidders were informed that extending the harvesting period was not legally possible.
“Unfortunately, many did not keep their payment commitments,” the minister said, and this led to the second round of evaluation that took place on 9 September 2020.
During the second round, 18 highest successful bidders were awarded the bids valued at N$464.9m and bidders were given until 15 September to pay.
Out of the 18, only three bidders accepted and settled their payments while others requested for the extension of payment deadline and/or
fishing season.
In the end, only 5 bidders managed to take up their offers and settled their payment obligations, which amounted to N$8,446,000.
An additional N$76,000 was generated from application fees.
