Ramatex investor gets N$90 000 off rent

The City of Windhoek has structured the Ramatex warehouse lease to allow the investor to deduct N$90 000 from each monthly rental payment, enabling the company to recover the cost of buying the buildings over nearly eight years.

Urban and rural development minister James Sankwasa told the National Assembly last Thursday that Grow More Investments CC, a subsidiary of Rani Group, bought two warehouses from the liquidators of the former Ramatex Textile Namibia.

The company subsequently applied to lease the municipal land underneath the warehouses.

Under the agreement approved by the Windhoek City Council through Resolution 196/09/2025, the two portions of land carry initial monthly rentals of N$173 283 and N$177 685.

However, the investor will initially pay N$90 000 less on each portion every month.

This means the city will receive N$83 283 for one portion and N$87 685 for the other, while the N$90 000 deductions allow the investor to recover the N$8.625 million purchase cost of each warehouse over 95.83 monthly instalments, or about eight years.

“The rental amounts will be subject to escalation, with years nine and 10 providing a two-year transition period before the lease enters its next phase,’ Sankwasa said while responding to parliamentarian Kalimbo Iipumbu.

From year 11, he said the rental will consist of the escalated year-11 amount plus the N$90 000 deduction.

From years 12 to 25, the rental will remain at the escalated year-11 level.

The 25-year lease covers the land only, while the warehouses remain part of the investment arrangement.

At the end of the lease, he said improvements to the buildings and surrounding area will become the property of the municipality.

Sankwasa said the arrangement was considered against factors including economic activity, job creation, investment, logistics and manufacturing.
The lease will also require the employment of local youth.

Grow More Investments had argued that demolishing, relocating and rebuilding the warehouses would cost about N$37.5 million per warehouse, in addition to the purchase price.

Sankwasa said the city could not convert the facility into subsidised industrial space for young entrepreneurs in the proposed manner because of legal issues surrounding the development.

He said the city will, however, proceed with statutory procedures for a proposed industrial township comprising 157 erven once the long-running legal dispute over the Ramatex site has been resolved.

Last year, Iipumbu described the 25-year lease as treason, emphasising that the government has again disregarded Namibian interests.

“Instead of transforming Ramatex into a hub where young Namibian entrepreneurs can innovate, manufacture and create wealth, the government has rolled out a red carpet for foreign capitalists,” he said.

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