Walvis Bay Salt breaks into AfCFTA market

Walvis Bay Salt Company became the first Namibian company to export products to Nigeria under the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA) in June 2025, after completing the registration and customs procedures required to qualify for preferential trade treatment.

The company’s experience is highlighted in Namibia’s newly launched Step-by-Step Guide to Trading Goods under the AfCFTA, which details the procedures it followed to export table salt and bulk salt to the Nigerian market.

According to the guide, the company approached the Ministry of International Relations and Trade for assistance after Namibia gazetted its provisional AfCFTA tariff schedule on 20 December 2024. The ministry referred the company to the Namibia Revenue Agency (NamRA) for registration as an AfCFTA exporter.

The company was required to submit its company profile, incorporation documents, a NamRA certificate of good standing and production process flow diagrams as part of the registration process. The guide states that the company’s salt products qualified as “wholly obtained” in Namibia under the AfCFTA rules of origin.

After receiving the required documents, NamRA took two days to issue the company with a Certificate of Origin, which confirms that goods qualify as originating in a particular country and allows them to benefit from preferential tariff treatment under the agreement.

The company then submitted a customs declaration using the SAD 500 form, together with its commercial invoice, before a NamRA customs official cleared the consignment for export.

The guide further states that the company’s bulk salt and table salt were ISO 9001 certified, while the table salt also had Hazard Analysis and Critical Control Points (HACCP) systems in place.

Speaking at the launch of the guide in Windhoek on Monday, Executive Director of the Ministry of International Relations and Trade Ambassador Jerobeam Shaanika said the publication was intended to make trade information more accessible to businesses.

“A small business in Namibia should not be excluded from continental trade simply because it lacks the resources to obtain information that ought to be readily accessible,” Shaanika said.

He said the guide was developed to make information on export procedures, documentation and requirements easier for businesses to understand and use.

“It seeks to transform information from something that is fragmented and sometimes difficult to access into a resource that is organized, understandable and actionable,” he said. United Nations Economic Commission for Africa (UNECA) Southern Africa Director Eunice Kamwendo said the agreement would only achieve its intended objectives if businesses were able to trade across the continent.

“Governments negotiate trade agreements, but businesses trade,” Kamwendo said.

She said businesses needed more than access to markets, noting that they also required market information, potential buyers, trade finance, reliable logistics and the capacity to meet standards and certification requirements.

“The true value of this Guide will be determined by what businesses do with it,” she said.

Namibia signed the AfCFTA agreement in 2018 and ratified it in 2019. The country launched its National AfCFTA Implementation Strategy in November 2022 to prepare businesses to take advantage of opportunities offered by the continental market.

The AfCFTA seeks to establish a single market for goods and services across Africa by reducing trade barriers and progressively removing tariffs on qualifying products.

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