One of the primary drivers of Namibia’s attractiveness as an investment destination is its supportive government and investor-friendly policies

JOHANNESBURG, South Africa, September 18, 2024/APO Group/ — 

By Rachel Mushabati, Senior Associate Attorney, CLG Namibia (www.CLGGlobal.com).

Namibia, a nation renowned for its breath-taking scenery and abundant wildlife, is becoming more and more well-known for its booming oil and gas industry. Namibia is quickly rising to the top of Africa’s oil and gas exploration and investment destinations because to notable discoveries and a favourable investment climate. Here are some reasons for investors to be interested in Namibia’s developing economy and how business advice and strategic law might improve investment prospects.

A Treasure Trove of Potential

Namibia’s oil and gas sector has garnered international attention due to its substantial potential. Recent exploratory drilling has revealed promising reserves off the coast, particularly in the Namibian offshore region. After several years of extensive exploration, Namibia realized its first oil discoveries. In early 2022, Shell, QatarEnergy, and NAMCOR made a landmark discovery in the deep-water well in the Orange Basin, offshore southern Namibia. This was followed by another significant find in 2023, when TotalEnergies, QatarEnergy, and NAMCOR discovered light oil with associated gas on the Venus prospect, also in the Orange Basin. In 2024, Galp Energia, Custos, and NAMCOR further solidified Namibia’s status with a high-quality light oil discovery in the Mopane-1X well, located in the same prolific basin.[1] These discoveries, alongside notable formations such as the Kudu Gas Field, have positioned Namibia as a key player in the global energy market. The country’s geological formations, particularly in the Orange Basin, have demonstrated significant hydrocarbon potential, making it an attractive destination for exploration and production.[2]

Government Support and Favourable Policies

One of the primary drivers of Namibia’s attractiveness as an investment destination is its supportive government and investor-friendly policies. The Namibian government has implemented a range of initiatives to foster a conducive environment for oil and gas investments. Namibia’s Investment Promotion Act[3] is a pivotal component in the country’s strategy to attract and support investors. This comprehensive legislation provides a range of incentives to enhance the financial viability of projects and reduce initial costs[4]. It also ensures robust legal protections, safeguarding investors’ property rights and offering non-discriminatory treatment compared to domestic investors. By streamlining licensing processes and providing one-stop-shop services[5], the Act simplifies the investment process and reduces bureaucratic hurdles. Additionally, it supports priority sectors such as oil and gas, reinforcing Namibia’s commitment to fostering a transparent, stable, and investor-friendly environment. Namibia’s commitment to creating a stable and attractive investment environment is evident through its proactive approach in engaging with international investors and offering competitive terms.

Strategic Location and Infrastructure

Namibia’s strategic location along the Atlantic Ocean provides a crucial advantage for oil and gas operations. The country’s well-developed port infrastructure, particularly the Port of Walvis Bay, facilitates efficient export and import processes.[6] Additionally, Namibia’s proximity to key international markets enhances its appeal as a hub for energy resources. The development of supporting infrastructure, such as pipelines and storage facilities, further strengthens Namibia’s position as a key player in the global energy supply chain.

Economic Growth and Sustainable Investment Opportunities in Namibia’s Oil and Gas Sector

Investing in Namibia’s oil and gas sector not only presents a wealth of economic opportunities but also aligns with the principles of sustainability and responsible investment. The sector’s expansion is expected to stimulate ancillary industries such as construction, logistics, and technology, benefiting local businesses through increased demand for related services and products. The influx of foreign investment is anticipated to drive job creation, infrastructure development, and overall economic growth. Concurrently, Namibia places a strong emphasis on sustainability and environmental stewardship. The government and industry stakeholders are committed to responsible investment practices that protect local communities and ecosystems. Investors who prioritize these practices will not only contribute to positive environmental and social outcomes but also bolster their own reputation and long-term success in the market.

Conclusion

Namibia’s emerging oil and gas sector offers a compelling opportunity for investors seeking to capitalize on new and promising markets. With its substantial hydrocarbon potential, favourable government policies, strategic location, and burgeoning economic opportunities, Namibia is poised to become a prominent player in the global energy arena. The sector’s growth is anticipated to drive significant benefits across various ancillary industries and create widespread economic development. Additionally, the emphasis on sustainability and responsible investment practices aligns with global standards, ensuring that investments contribute positively to local communities and the environment.

However, successfully navigating this promising landscape requires expert guidance. Engaging with local legal and business advisory services can provide investors with crucial insights, help manage regulatory complexities, and enhance overall investment strategies. By leveraging the expertise of these advisory services, investors can maximize their potential for success and make a meaningful contribution to Namibia’s oil and gas sector. For those ready to explore the opportunities in Namibia’s oil and gas industry, the time to act is now. With the right expertise and strategic approach, investors can unlock substantial rewards and play a pivotal role in the growth of this exciting sector.

Namibia’s oil and gas sector has garnered international attention due to its substantial potential

[1] NAMCOR. Press Releases. Retrieved from https://apo-opa.co/3XO3SZ4. Last accessed 5 September 2024.

[2] Koning, T. “The Orange Basin, Deepwater Namibia- What’s Going on with Its Resources, Reserves and Future Production of Natural Gas?”. Retrieved from https://apo-opa.co/3XMKCv1. Last accessed 6 September 2024.

[3] Namibia Investment Promotion Act 9 of 2016

[4] Namibia Investment Promotion Act Section 4 (4)

[5] Namibia Investment Promotion Act Section 7

[6] Namport. “Welcome to the Port of Walvis Bay”. Retrieved from https://apo-opa.co/3Xq02UC. Last accessed 6 September 2024.

Distributed by APO Group on behalf of CLG.

With AI, business owners can quickly craft personalized responses, such as thank-you emails to customers after they make a purchase or sign-up for a service, reminder emails, and responses to inquiries or complaints

JOHANNESBURG, South Africa, September 18, 2024/APO Group/ — 

Generative AI (Artificial Intelligence) is not new, however the recent boom in AI tools available to anyone such as image-generation tools and AI-driven applications, while offering new opportunities, can also place small business owners in new and unfamiliar territory.

GoDaddy shares some ways in which generative AI can help small business owners and entrepreneurs enhance creativity, streamline operations and support customer engagement.

1. Generate creative and unique business names – The biggest barrier to getting started is sometimes a blank screen. Generative AI is great for helping to get creativity started. If thinking of a catchy business name isn’t your strong suit, consider using AI to kick-start the process. GoDaddy AI Domain Search can help generate potential business names, giving entrepreneurs a list of unique and creative names that they might not have come up with otherwise.
    
2. Automate content creation – By simplifying the content creation process and enhancing the effectiveness of published materials, such as website content, newsletters or blogs, AI can help save entrepreneurs both time and money.

Using advanced natural language processing algorithms and deep learning techniques, AI-powered content-generation tools can analyze existing content within a specific industry or niche. Using that information, AI tools can then generate relevant and engaging content. And then, you can update the output to match the overall vibe of your unique business.

GoDaddy is equipping small business owners with AI tools and guidance to help them boost their content creativity and streamline operations

To help entrepreneurs be successful in creating prompts to use with AI tools, GoDaddy created a free guide. This guide offers small business owners tips for how to create text and visual prompts.

1. Enhance customer service – With AI, business owners can quickly craft personalized responses, such as thank-you emails to customers after they make a purchase or sign-up for a service, reminder emails, and responses to inquiries or complaints. By providing fast and personalized responses to customers, using AI-powered tools can help to enhance the overall customer experience, leading to higher satisfaction rates and a stronger brand reputation, and help to drive further engagement with customers.
    
2. Support for social media management – Engaging on social media channels is an important part of growing a business in today’s digital environment, but managing multiple platforms and attempting to brainstorm creative new content can feel daunting. AI can help here as well.
   
   Tasks AI can support with include creating a list of key moments and relevant events for a target audience, craft ad copy to grab people’s attention, write simple video scripts, create editorial calendars, and provide creative captions for image-based posts.
   
   GoDaddy Studio creates professional-looking content for a business or personal brand. Anyone can easily and quickly produce engaging content without needing advanced design skills. This free tool is available for anyone looking to enhance their online presence and take advantage of branded content for their social media channels, website, customer email communications, and more.

While AI tools can help save time and money, it is crucial for a human to closely review the output of the AI tool that you choose to use, as AI can return incorrect, false or outdated information or may include content containing third parties’ intellectual property.

“In today’s fast-changing digital world, GoDaddy is equipping small business owners with AI tools and guidance to help them boost their content creativity and streamline operations, saving them time to focus on growing their businesses,” said Selina Bieber, Vice President of International Markets at GoDaddy.

GoDaddy offers a wide array of online resources to help small businesses and entrepreneurs thrive in the digital world, from website building and ecommerce tools to email and digital marketing solutions.

For more information on how GoDaddy can help your business, visit GoDaddy (www.GoDaddy.com).

Distributed by APO Group on behalf of GoDaddy.

Entire operations may be disrupted for days or even weeks, resulting in lost revenue, diminished service quality and disappointed clients and partners

JOHANNESBURG, South Africa, September 18, 2024/APO Group/ — 

In today’s interconnected world, cyberattacks are more frequent and more dangerous than ever before. Businesses, regardless of size or industry, are prime targets for cybercriminals. These attacks can cause widespread damage and create long-lasting consequences. Kaspersky (www.Kaspersky.co.za) dives into the impact of cyberattacks on business and reveals the key losses that an unprotected business can suffer.

When we consider the impact of cyberattacks on business, the first thing we pay attention to is financial losses. An example of an incident with huge financial losses is the attack on Johnson Controls, a major player in the building technology sector that faced a significant ransomware incident (https://apo-opa.co/3XnrMJm) perpetrated by the Dark Angels hacking group. The attackers claimed to have stolen 27 terabytes of sensitive data and demanded a $51 million ransom. This breach resulted in severe disruptions to the company’s systems and cost over $27 million in damages. The attack impacted Johnson Controls’ business operations, including disruptions to its billing systems and increased recovery expenses. As a company with a global presence, the breach significantly affected its business relationships and operations. 

Below, Kaspersky explores several key ways a cyberattack can hurt your business.

Financial losses
Cyberattacks often result in direct financial losses. Ransomware attacks, where hackers demand payment to restore access to data or directly steal funds, are a clear example. But this is only the beginning, as there are numerous other consequences that may result in considerable indirect financial losses. These can easily exceed what the company has lost as an immediate outcome of the incident.

Operational disruption
Cyberattacks can grind your operations to a halt. Many businesses depend on their digital infrastructure for daily activities. If systems are compromised, productivity falls. In severe cases, entire operations may be disrupted for days or even weeks (https://apo-opa.co/3MQRkKo), resulting in lost revenue, diminished service quality and disappointed clients and partners — an additional impact on your company’s reputation. 

Indirect long-term costs
Even following the immediate aftermath of a cyberattack, businesses often face long-term financial impacts. Restoring systems, improving cybersecurity infrastructure, and managing the legal fallout are just some of the lingering costs. Additionally, lost business and damaged customer relationships can take months or years to rebuild.

At Kaspersky, we’re deeply committed to delivering the agile security that businesses need

Reputational damage
The trust your clients place in you is invaluable. If customer data is stolen in a breach, it can severely damage your brand’s reputation. This loss of trust can lead to customers leaving and a long-term decline in business. In some cases, a single breach is enough to ruin a company’s public image beyond repair.

If your business falls victim to an attack, it can also impact your relationships with partners and vendors. Third-party partners might lose confidence in your ability to protect shared data. Similarly, business-critical relationships could be jeopardised if you fail to recover quickly or if your systems compromise their operations.

Legal and compliance issues
With data protection regulations such as the GDPR in Europe, POPIA in South Africa or HIPAA in the U.S., a data breach can lead to heavy fines. Failing to protect sensitive customer or employee data may result in penalties and lawsuits. Furthermore, companies that fall victim to breaches often face lengthy legal battles, which add to the financial and reputational strain.

Loss of intellectual property
For many businesses, intellectual property (IP) is among their most valuable assets. Cyberattacks targeting IP can steal product designs, marketing strategies, and proprietary information. This is particularly harmful in competitive industries like technology and pharmaceuticals, where IP theft can erase the advantage a company has spent years building.

“Attackers are never idle – they’re like wolves who must be constantly active to catch their prey off-guard.  So, companies need to be ever more alert and agile. They must be sure they have the right solutions and processes to allow for effective threat discovery and containment, as well as swift recovery. At Kaspersky, we’re deeply committed to delivering the agile security that businesses need. Proactive assessments and multi-layered protective solutions, plus managed security and actionable threat intelligence – we have it all. What’s more important, we have the expertise to put together the exact cybersecurity structure for your individual profile. Only a consistent and comprehensive approach, like this one, can ensure true business resilience against today’s cyber risks,” comments Oleg Gorobets, Security Evangelist at Kaspersky. 

Below, Kaspersky offers some recommendations to help your business stay ahead of cyberthreats and remain resilient: 

• Always keep the software updated on all the devices you use to prevent attackers from infiltrating your network by exploiting vulnerabilities. Install patches for new vulnerabilities as soon as possible.
• To protect the company against a wide range of threats, use robust solutions, like that from the Kaspersky Next (https://apo-opa.co/4gr9zDD) product line, that provide real-time protection, threat visibility, and the investigation and response capabilities of EDR and XDR for organisations of any size and industry. Kaspersky solutions are regularly awarded, leading in independent tests (https://apo-opa.co/3XyqJXl).
• For protection of very small businesses, use solutions intended to help you manage your cybersecurity even without having an IT administrator on board. Kaspersky Small Office Security (https://apo-opa.co/4gxRLqz) provides you with hands-off security due to ‘install and forget’ protection and saves the budget, which is crucial, particularly in the early stages of business development.  
• If your company doesn’t have a dedicated IT security function and only has generalist IT admins who may lack the specialist skills required for expert-level detection and response solutions, consider subscribing to a managed service such as Kaspersky MDR (https://apo-opa.co/3zzkfiN). This would instantly boost your security capabilities by an order of magnitude, while allowing you to focus on building in-house expertise.
• Educate your employees to have protection against human-related cyberattacks. Specialised courses can help, such as Kaspersky Automated Security Awareness Platform (https://apo-opa.co/3XtzFgw) that instills safe Internet behaviour and includes a simulated phishing attack exercise. 
• Set up offline backups that intruders cannot tamper with. Make sure you can quickly access them in an emergency when needed.  
• Conduct cybersecurity audits.

Distributed by APO Group on behalf of Kaspersky.