The Chief Executive Officer of the Namibian Tourism Board says the board is projected to collect about N$48 million from its levies this year.

Digu ||Naobeb revealed that from 2019 until 2021, government funding to the board has been on average N$3 million.

This has left the board to rely heavily on levies collected from tourism businesses.

"The trend is that government funding has been going down and NTB has been going up. When you look at 2019 to 2021, government funding was averaging N$3 million, whereas NTB's funding in 2020 was about N$46 million. We want to illustrate the levies vs. the NTB's income. The majority of our organization's income comes from levies, with the remainder coming from trade fair participation fees. When you look at the levies in 2019, we were making good money, but by 2020, they had dropped. You will see that in 2020 we collected about N$16 million, and in 2023 we are projecting to collect about N$48 million, and the next year about N$45 million in levies."

NTB uses the levies to pay for marketing activities and the board's operations.

"It is therefore our plea that NTB be adequately funded. When COVID hit, we were building reserves, and you will see that in 2013, our reserves were about 70 million. When COVID hit, we started using our reserves to do marketing and other activities, so we were cushioned by the reserves. In 2021, we want the ministry to know that N$3 million was not enough, so they gave us N$7 million in additional funding."

He noted, however, that NTB's financial position is stabilizing.

"As an outgoing CEO, I am happy that it is on a solid foundation, because there are stories that I have eaten money, which is why I am running, but it's a liquid organization; it's not bankrupt, and we have ensured prudent financial spending."

||Naobeb also advised on the selection of target source markets for tourism.