It’s Not 800 or 900 but a Billion, Job Amupanda Says the Government Is Lying About GIPF Lost Money
By TUW
In a social media statement, MP and AR President, Job Amupanda has accused the Government Institutions Pension Fund (GIPF) of concealing the full magnitude of its financial losses. According to Amupanda, the fund’s total impairment is not just hundreds of millions but sits at N$ 1.54 billion, far surpassing the figures publicly disclosed.
Amupanda claims that the commonly cited loss of around N$800–900 million only reflects part of the damage — specifically, the impairment related to one offshore investment. He insists that GIPF and its leadership have withheld the complete picture, preventing the public and pensioners from understanding the full scope of the risk.
In response to the allegations, Amupanda has formally called on Parliament’s Public Accounts Committee to summon the entire GIPF board and management for a public hearing. He argues that pensioners and Namibian citizens deserve full transparency and accountability.
GIPF has acknowledged a substantial write-down: its 2025 financial results include a total impairment provision of N$922.2 million. The single largest portion of this N$815 million stems from its exposure to the Signal Structured Finance Fund, a vehicle managed by South Africa’s TriAlpha Investment Management.
GIPF explains that this impairment results from a complex tax dispute with the South African Revenue Service (SARS), combined with other uncertainties such as a lack of up-to-date financial statements and challenges redeeming assets. According to the fund, these issues required a prudent accounting adjustment, rather than signaling a complete collapse of the investment.
Despite the size of the provision, GIPF asserts that its financial foundations remain solid. The CEO, Martin Inkumbi, has emphasized that this impairment represents only about 0.4% of the fund’s total asset base — a figure well below the materiality threshold defined by its external auditors. He has also reaffirmed that GIPF continues to deliver strong returns, citing net investment gains of N$18 billion in 2024 and N$16.7 billion in 2025.
Beyond offshore markets, GIPF is grappling with challenges in its domestic agribusiness portfolio. Documents released by the fund suggest that it may not fully recover N$45.3 million of its N$278 million investment in Mashare Berries and Mashare Irrigation in the Kavango East region.
GIPF describes this as a fair-value impairment — essentially a provision based on the current economic outlook — rather than a guaranteed cash loss. The fund’s management and its investment partners note that the venture requires a long time horizon (10–12 years) to reach its full potential, in part because of the agricultural and climatic challenges inherent to the region.
Amupanda’s allegations come at a time of growing political scrutiny. Former Finance Minister Calle Schlettwein has publicly demanded answers, calling the impairment “horrendous” and insisting that GIPF must account for who is responsible for the losses. Schlettwein has challenged the fund’s leadership to disclose how the investment decisions were made and to explain what went wrong.
