(Ecofin Agency) - Falling into the steps of Ivory Coast, Namibia has decided to deny foreign nationals access to its lands. The government has proposed last Thursday in parliament a law in the Land Bill of 2016 to ban foreign land ownership.

The bill, if adopted, should help secure the agricultural lands of the country. According to estimates from the Land Minister, Utoni Nujoma, out of 12,000 farms spread across 40 million hectares (ha), 281 farms are presently owned by foreign nationals, that is 1.3 million hectares. An alarming situation indeed.

The new law, though likely to pass, it should be recalled that a similar initiative on urban land was rejected by the parliamentary in 2015. However, to palliate to this, the government introduced in the new bill several restrictions to make leasing of urban land for foreign nationals extremely hard.

Souha Touré