WINDHOEK, April 13 (Xinhua) -- With the Easter holiday celebrations just around the corner, the rise in prices of basic food commodities coupled with the ripple effects of the COVID-19 pandemic has left people in Namibia reeling, dashing a glimmer of hope that had remained.
Namib Mills Group, the country's food-producing and distributing company, recently announced an increase of 3 percent to 6 percent in the price of its line of products this month, making maize meal pasta, bread, rice, sugar and wheat flour become unreachable for some.
In an interview with Xinhua, Sisi Mandy, 38 and a mother of two, expressed shock over food prices hikes, which in turn are making it tough to make ends meet as she is being forced to change her lifestyle.
"These days, I only buy the necessities like rice, maize meal, cooking oil and if there is any monetary change, I buy some meat," she explained.
According to Mandy, this coming Easter holiday she can not even spoil her children with the luxuries she used to because she has to consider buying a bottle of cooking oil priced at around 80 Namibian dollars (about 5.5 U.S. dollars) to 90 Namibian dollars.
"Now we eat to live and not live to eat," the disgruntled mother said.
According to Namib Mills, the ongoing war has amplified the already increasing global food and energy costs.
"Even before the tensions, food prices had been on the rise for the past year, but the world has seen large jumps in the cost of food over the last two months," Namib Mills Commercial Manager Pieter van Niekerk told Xinhua in a recent interview.
Trevor Dani, an expatriate Zimbabwean, said his financial budgets have become restricted as there is little to no disposable income to enjoy things such as entertainment, travel, eating out, etc.
"Now I am very strict on how we spend money. I have had to review where we buy our groceries, we are always on the lookout for the cheaper options now, willing to compromise on quality for the sake of price," said Dani, who admitted he had been forced to read up on financial products and instruments to make better investment decisions so that savings/investments keep up with inflation, moving away from traditionally saving in banks but looking into stocks for better returns and to retain the dollar value.
While others in the southwestern African nation still have a budget to work on, Ruben Ndara, an informal worker who hails from Rundu, in northern Namibia, said migrating to Windhoek, the capital of Namibia, has turned out tough.
"I cannot afford to buy the same amount of groceries that I used to buy, and send back home. I cannot even afford the basics, which has forced me to have one meal a day," he said, adding that traveling again for a simple holiday to his hometown is now a thing of the past.
Ndara said at the current rate he is perplexed as to what his next move is as prices continue to rise.
Meanwhile, Johannes Gawaxab, governor of the Bank of Namibia, the central bank, on Wednesday said in a Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) announcement that food prices are rising faster than wages not only in Namibia but across the globe.
According to Gawaxab, overall inflation in Namibia is now projected to average around 6 percent for 2022, from the 4.4 percent projected at the last MPC meeting, while the cost of borrowing will increase as the repo rate rose to 4.25 percent. ■
