While Namibian leaders publicly champion “digital sovereignty”, the keys to the country’s most sensitive data remain firmly in foreign hands.
For over 15 years, a single subsidiary of a Chinese state-owned firm has quietly built a near-monopoly hold over Namibia’s national databases, creating a deep-seated reliance that experts warn could leave the nation’s secrets vulnerable to foreign oversight.
The company in question is China National Software and Services, with its subsidiary known as CSS-CA Technology. The company could not be reached for comment and did not respond to an email request by The Issue last week.
Although the government, through the Prime Minister’s Office, has maintained that it is in full control of all its databases and computerised systems, the concerns have persistently refused to go away. The Issue has learned that at least one government agency had its system shut down for a prolonged period after failing to pay service fees to the said entity – a move that demonstrates who is in actual control of the system.
The Chinese firm is currently managing key government databases storing private citizens’ information, ranging from birth certificates and immigration records to tax returns, business registration documents, and police records. This also includes all documents handled by the Prime Minister’s Office.
Even more worrying is new information stating that the government is flirting with the idea of partnering with another Chinese technology giant in a bid to build a national data centre. The centre will house all of the government’s currently fragmented servers under one roof, at an estimated cost of about N$500 million. The technology firm in question is allegedly proposing to help finance the project as a sweetener to close the deal.
Such a move would contradict the pronouncements made by Prime Minister Elijah Ngurare since taking office last year. He has been repeatedly quoted in the media emphasising the need for Namibia to develop its own systems. He has asserted that Namibia should be able to build its own computer software and hardware capabilities, and that the country’s digital sovereignty is at stake should the government continue outsourcing the development and hosting of critical digital systems to foreign entities.
Ngurare also faced questions regarding the country’s digital sovereignty in Parliament during February. This followed reports by The Issue that the Ministry of Home Affairs’ online visa application portal was under the control of a private individual who allegedly had the power to overrule ministry officials.
“The project is still at a preliminary stage and no procurement process, negotiations, or engagement with any specific companies have taken place yet,” said Ngurare’s spokesperson, Rhingo Mutambo, on Friday. He refuted claims that the government is considering partnering with a Chinese-owned company to build the national data centre. He added that the national data centre is not a new idea. It has been on the cards for some time, and is part of the government’s national development plan (NDP6).
LOCAL EXPERTISE OVERLOOKED
ICT experts have raised concern about the lack of government support for local expertise, despite official insistence to the contrary. The majority of the development work on these systems is conducted in China, and very few local jobs are created when the government hands multi-million dollar contracts to foreign companies. This occurs while the country sends just over 600 ICT graduates onto the streets every year.
The Prime Minister’s Office admits that some initial development work is performed outside Namibia during the early stages, but insists that all systems are developed and managed within the country.
However, significant risk factors remain, including concerns regarding data security and sovereignty. “Does Namibia have access to the source codes of all these programmes, and how we know there is no backdoor mechanism ensuring that those foreign governments are not spying on us via all those systems,” said an ICT programmer who requested anonymity.
It was widely reported in 2018 that the African Union’s (AU) discovered that suspected Chinese hackers had rigged servers in the basement of the sprawling building, gifted by the Chinese government, to intercept data from across the AU’s campus in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia’s capital. Both the AU and the Chinese government have denied these claims.
Industry experts have called for the government to make public the service level agreements, which explicitly state that the data belongs to Namibia, as well as agreements pertaining to disaster recovery plans and the identity of the key custodians with passcodes for these systems. In response, Mutambo assured that the government would launch an investigation should any such breaches occur.
DATA CAPTURED
While Prime Minister Ngurare makes bold digital patriotism statements, the situation on the ground directly contradicts his stated direction.
In December, the Business and Intellectual Property Authority (Bipa) announced the introduction of a N$40 million intelligent business registration digital platform. The platform was designed to make Bipa a one-stop business registration centre, integrated and synchronised with agencies like the Namibia Revenue Agency (NamRA) and the Social Security Commission (SSC).
The system has been at the heart of an impasse between BIPA and the Bank of Namibia, specifically the Financial Intelligence Centre (FIC). Media reports stated that the FIC was pushing for a system that would allow the government and law enforcement to monitor beneficial ownership records. The country’s inability to track the beneficial ownership of companies is part of the reason Namibia was greylisted by the Financial Action Task Force, which declared the jurisdiction vulnerable to money laundering.
This led to a protracted standoff between the FIC and Bipa regarding the contract award, dating back to 2023. At one stage, Bipa reportedly rejected companies suggested by the FIC, claiming they were too expensive, while local telecommunication companies also reportedly offered more affordable options.
However, Bipa’s December announcement that it had appointed CSS-CA Technology. The announcement raised eyebrows in the local tech sector.
Bipa spokesperson Ndapanda Toivo absolved the parastatal of any wrongdoing, noting that the procurement process was run by the Central Procurement Board of Namibia in accordance with the Procurement Act.
Mutambo further maintains that all government information systems remain owned, managed, and governed by the respective Namibian agencies.
“External technology providers operate strictly within contractual agreements and under the oversight of government authorities,” he said.
15 YEARS AND COUNTING
It is possible that Bipa and the Central Procurement Board did not realise that CSS-CA has dominated government ICT tenders to the point of a near-monopoly. While the Prime Minister’s Office offers assurances that data sovereignty remains intact, these complaints have been raised for the past 15 years. Homegrown technology firms maintain that their cries for intervention have fallen on deaf ears.
By December 2012, Insight Namibia magazine reported that CSS-CA had already secured N$1 billion worth of government ICT contracts. This included a Ministry of Finance tender for an Integrated Tax Administration System (ITAS), initially valued at N$184 million, which has since grown in scope and cost.
Over the years, CSS-CA has secured other major contracts. In the home affairs ministry it was in control of the alien control, e-visas, fingerprints, population biometrics, and birth certificates systems. At the Namibian Police, the e-policing system and the management of certificates of conduct, as well as the electronic documents management records system (EDMRS) at the prime minister’s office.
Home Affairs Executive Director Nghidinua Daniel declined to provide specific details regarding the ministry’s agreements with CSS-CA. “The ministry is in full operational control over its systems and their contents,” Daniel said, insisting that the awards complied with procurement laws and underwent all necessary legal clearances.
