The national broadcaster has over the years, allowed a significant decline in its TV licence fees collection, as one of its main income streams, to now heavily depend on taxpayers through government subsidies as the main source of funding its operations.
But the Namibian Broadcasting Corporation appears to have a solution. They plan to introduce a new electronic TV licence system and a possible device tax, as a means of maximising income derived from TV licence fees.
To arrest the NBC’s chronic mismanagement of the dwindling television licence fee income, a long-awaited electronic programme is replacing a haphazard manual system that leaves the institution short on income and not knowing who owes them, while exposing the non-existent operational wherewithal to collect arrears.
According to NBC chairman Lazarus Jacobs, the board has undertaken a sweeping digital reform of its historically beleaguered TV licence fee collection system, moving away from a “structurally weak, fragmented, and largely manual” framework.
Jacobs confirmed the launch of the Integrated Television Licence (iTVL) platform, a centralised digital system designed to tackle poor financial accountability, fraud vulnerability, and low collection rates.
“NBC has transitioned from a fragmented, paper-based operation to a modern, auditable and digitally integrated licence collection system. While public compliance remains a challenge, the corporation now possesses the infrastructure, oversight tools, and partnerships required for long-term improvement,” said Jacobs.
He described the TV licence fee state of affairs at the time of his appointment in 2020 as dire, noting that data was “dispersed across regional databases with limited audit control, leading directly to inaccuracies and vulnerability to error and fraud”.
The Auditor-General’s report on NBC’s accounts for the financial year ending 31 March 2013 shows N$40.8 million was collected in 2013, a slight decrease from N$41.6 million collected in 2012. In a qualified audit opinion, the Auditor-General Report on the Accounts for the Financial Year Ended 31 March 2017, which was presented to the National Assembly in September 2018, shows that TV licence fee revenue dropped to N$29.4 million for 2017.
TV licence fees saw a slight decline to N$34.4 million in 2021, down from N$34.7 million in 2020. In the most recently available Auditor-General’s report on the NBC’s accounts, for the financial year that ended 31 March 2022, the AG issued another adverse audit opinion, as the financial statements “do not give a true and fair view due to the significance of matters”.
TV licence fee revenue further declined to N$30.5 million in 2022.
Multiple audit reports and a 2025 parliamentary committee report suggested investigations into the poor financial management of the institution.
Adverse audit opinions, the most severe non-clean opinions, were issued for 2015, 2016, 2020, 2021 and 2022, indicating that the financial statements do not present a true and fair view of the corporation’s financial position.
This highlights significant, systemic deficiencies in financial reporting, internal controls and the ability to provide adequate audit evidence across multiple reporting periods.
The Parliamentary Standing Committee on Human Resources and Community Development’s report of the Motion on the Devastating Strike at the NBC, tabled in the National Assembly in February, said the potential understatement of revenue from TV licences was estimated at over N$22 million.
The committee noted NBC had no measures in place to collect annual licence fees and recommended implementing systems like collecting fees through Multichoice and retail shops selling TV sets.
Despite promising to respond, NBC management has not provided an explanation for the failure of the current management to properly collect and manage TV licence fees.
SHAMBOLIC BOOKS
Over the years, auditors have often highlighted NBC’s lack of professionalism, characterised by a comedy of schoolboy errors and repeated erroneous accounting practices made worse by NBC’s consistent late submission of their books and ignoring audit recommendations.
A review of the corporation’s asset management and valuation revealed significant irregularities, including an unsigned property valuation report from an unqualified valuator, leading to wasteful expenditure and raising questions about the tender approval, minutes for which were not submitted.
Furthermore, the corporation’s financials incorrectly included a property registered to the Namibia Development Corporation with a value of N$10 million, which was attributed to human error and duplicated land records. Compounding these problems, an incorrect depreciation was charged to revalued buildings, suggesting an overstatement of property value due to calculation errors; while corrected financials were promised to the auditors, they were never provided. Both the Auditor General Junias Kandjeke and parliament recommended the implementation and maintenance of accurate records, asset registers, and necessary documents to prevent a recurrence of these systemic failures.
Parliament also raised significant concerns regarding the funding of the post-retirement medical scheme obligation and the management of employee deductions. NBC recognised a post-retirement medical scheme obligation of N$348 million, but no specific assets were set aside to fund this, meaning the scheme is technically not funded.
Like many state-owned enterprises, NBC too collected tax and medical aid contributions from workers but did not pay it over to the institutions.
The institution has repeatedly attributed the funding challenge to low government subsidies since 1993.
LOSING MONEY
Many of the NBC’s current problems stem from its inability to manage the subsidy and commercial activities, including advertising and licence fees, leaving the government’s steadily increasing subsidy as a substantial but ultimately insufficient injection.
Parliament found the practice of making deductions from employees and not covering the post-retirement medical liability unethical, fraudulent, and unacceptable. The committee recommended that the Anti-Corruption Commission (ACC) should investigate the practice of deducting money from employees and the employer and not paying it over to service providers (including medical aid and NamRA). Additionally, Kandjeke has also pointed out significant issues in the valuation and record-keeping of the corporation’s assets.
Moreover, the parliamentary report titled ‘Report of the Motion on Devastating Strike at the Namibian Broadcasting Corporation (NBC) concluded, among other things, that the main cause of the 2021 strike by NBC employees was the N$5.4 million paid out to executive management and selected senior managers as “performance bonuses”.
The committee also found that NBC had violated the Labour Act by allowing salary deductions of more than one-third of an employee’s net income and determined that both the Ministry of Information and Communication Technology (MICT) and NBC showed a reluctance to find a lasting and amicable solution to the industrial dispute.
This was too much, and NBC, in an unprecedented move, went to court to have parliament’s recommendations set aside. In September, the High Court ruled in NBC’s favour, and ordered that the entire report be set aside.
PUBLIC BURDEN
Back in 2014, then director general Albertus Aoxamub miraculously declared a N$14 million surplus, which was followed by a net deficit of N$48.4 million in 2016.
The subsidy from the government, the corporation’s main source of income, amounted to N$104.7 million in 2012. Over the years, that sharply escalated, and in the 2025 budget, the government allocated N$361.9 million for operations and N$140 million for development initiatives.
In the NBC’s annual reports for financial years 2018/2019 and 2019/2020, the corporation acknowledged its “precarious financial situation”.
And while subsidies and losses ballooned, income from TV licence fees steadily and consistently plummeted.
TECH AND TAX
It is now apparent that NBC’s answer to their chronic TV licence fee failure is an electronic system, the iTVL platform, which has fundamentally improved data integrity, accountability, and accessibility.
According to Jacobs, as of September 2025, the system boasts 348 921 valid records, 76% of which are household accounts.
Key improvements delivered by the iTVL platform include the full digitisation of all licence data and payment tracking.
Furthermore, the system ensures real-time accountability through a centralised database that allows for automated reconciliation and centralised auditability, marking a massive step up from the previous pre-2015 environment.
The NBC has also facilitated wider payment access by integrating the system with payment gateways, enabling citizens to renew their licences nationwide at major retailers such as PEP Home, Shoprite, and Checkers.
Despite the massive infrastructural overhaul, Jacobs noted that compliance remains the main hurdle. As of September 2025, the system hosts 348 921 valid records, of which 76% are household accounts, and operates with a compliance rate of approximately 20%.
“Although compliance remains low, the infrastructure now allows for real-time reporting, traceability, and centralised auditability, a significant improvement from the pre-2015 environment,” said Jacobs.
A major source of confusion, according to the NBC, is the misconception among viewers who access NBC content via Multichoice (DStv) that they are exempt from their statutory licence obligations.
