The Namibia Industrial Development Agency (NIDA) faces intense scrutiny following a scathing report by the Parliamentary Standing Committee on Public Accounts and Economy. 

Independent candidate Paulus Mbangu criticised NIDA for mismanagement, citing the agency's failure to effectively manage its responsibilities. 

He proposed several recommendations aimed at reforming governance and improving accountability within NIDA and other state-owned enterprises.

"NIDA was given a total of N$89 million in 2023, mainly due to the rent arrears of the active and catered tenants, but when the Minister of Industrialization and Trade, Lucia Iipumbu, intervened and instructed them to collect the money within 60 days, they managed to collect N$4 million. From April 2023 up to June 2023. This tells us a clear sign of incompetency within the agency. Out of the 148 industrial estates, tourism centres, SMEs, and business partners across the country, most of them are struggling financially. Instead of developing, managing, and offering industrial infrastructure for economic activities that focus on job creation, NIDA is out there with a begging bowl, waiting for a government bailout."

Committee members, including Chance Kazongominja and Gerhard Shiimi, called for an end to bailouts and rigorous oversight of NIDA and other SOEs to protect national interests.

"Our biggest concern as a committee is: why is the ministry year-in, year-out budgeting to give money to NIDA? For what reasons are they having to give money to NIDA? I request that we engage the government on a very serious note, either to dismantle NIDA or to see what happens," said Kazongominja, while Shimmi's main concerns were that "there's a company called AGRO Business that's running the green schemes with the same behaviour as NIDA, so the AGRO Business almost killed the whole green schemes in Namibia. We need to be vigilant and investigate all these SOEs so that we can protect our country."

The session called for urgent reforms within NIDA to restore public trust and ensure effective economic development through improved governance and performance.