The Communications Regulatory Authority of Namibia proposed new regulatory levy fees for telecommunications licences, broadcasting and postal services.

CRAN's Chief Executive Officer, Emilia Nghikembua, made the announcement of the new fees during the public hearing on regulatory levies and licence fees in Windhoek.

The amendments include a proposed increase of the regulatory levy from 1% to 2.25% of annual revenue for telecommunication licensees and from 1.2% to the same percentage for broadcasting and postal licenses.

Nghikembua says the adjustment is necessary to address the under-recovery of regulatory costs over the past years due to legal challenges and the need to fund CRAN's expanded strategic initiatives.

"These proposed amendments are designed with fairness and predictability in mind. We have incorporated provisions to mitigate undue impacts, especially on smaller operators, by introducing new minimum thresholds. fact that your contributions will be instrumental in changing the regulatory framework that sustains our sector's growth, protects consumer interest, and promotes equitable participation. Together we believe that we can ensure that Namibia's telecommunications industry remains vibrant, inclusive and forward-looking."

The regulatory authorities' intention is to ensure that the fees and levies reflect current industry realities, align with regional and 

international best practices, and do not create barriers to market entry or negatively impact consumers.

While benchmarking against regional peers, CRAN underlined that Namibia's proposed levies are aligned with, or lower than, those in comparable jurisdictions.

Helene Vosloo, CRAN's executive for Economics and Market Development, adds, "We have started with a 0.5% and now we are at a point where it is not sustainable any longer for the industry to under-recover because we are a non-profit organisation, which means that we are not allowed to make profits, but any organisation should have reserves for if something terrible happens, and currently we are spending our reserves, and we are no longer able to recover the cost of regulation."

Industry players appealed to CRAN for commitment to strategic actions that will protect and support the growth of the broadcast revenue streams that the authority regulates.

Furthermore, CRAN is to avoid excessive burden on industry operators that cannot carry it sustainably.

Stefan Hugo is the Director at Future Media.

"As experienced people working in the broadcast industry for many years now, most of us in this room know that local broadcasting is extremely vulnerable due to international platform competition for revenue, which CRAN has been unable to level the playing field for its licensees on. We've seen a massive migration of money that used to come into the local broadcast industry go out to the international advertising and streaming platforms, which sits at the core of the decline in revenue for the broadcast industry."

CRAN plans to publish the new fees by June this year.