The network covers Namibia within the Southern Africa region. Payslips there are drawn up in NAD, and dealings with a local firm are conducted in English.
The business centres where the network is looking for a correspondent as a priority are Windhoek, Walvis Bay, Swakopmund, Oshakati.
The country lies outside the European Union and outside the European Economic Area: the A1 certificate has no standing there. Whether the employee remains in the scheme of origin then depends on the bilateral social security agreement, if any, concluded with the sending country; where no such agreement exists, dual affiliation must be expected and budgeted into the assignment.
The answer to this question changes everything: it determines to whom you may entrust your payslips locally, and what you must ask for before signing. It has been verified country by country with the local authorities.
In Namibia, running payroll on behalf of third parties is reserved by law to no registered profession: any company may take it on. The absence of a legal barrier shifts the checking onto you, and that is why the network itself verifies the registration, the tax and social security standing and the insurance cover of every firm before listing it.
La Namibie distingue le régulateur légal, le PAAB, qui enregistre les public accountants and auditors au titre du Public Accountants' and Auditors' Act, et l'institut professionnel, l'ICAN, qui délivre le titre de chartered accountant et permet au public de vérifier en ligne la qualité d'un membre. L'audit est réservé aux inscrits ; la tenue de paie pour compte de tiers ne l'est pas, elle est largement exercée par des payroll bureaux non enregistrés.
Namibia operates in English, its sole official language, within a legal environment derived from Roman-Dutch law as it developed in southern Africa. For a French employer this is genuinely unfamiliar territory: employment law categories, disciplinary procedures and document vocabulary do not map onto continental reference points, and assumptions carried over from Europe tend to fail quietly.
The currency is the Namibian dollar, anchored to the South African currency, which also circulates in the country. Two administrations share the employer file: the Namibia Revenue Agency (NamRA) for wage withholding tax, and the Social Security Commission for contributions. Each issues its own good standing certificate and both are needed.
Accounting and payroll for third parties are not reserved activities: only audit is, under the supervision of the Public Accountants' and Auditors' Board. The Institute of Chartered Accountants of Namibia awards the chartered accountant designation, but many payroll bureaux operate without any professional registration at all, which shifts the burden of assessment onto the client.
Two independent registrations open the employer file: NamRA for withholding tax, then the Social Security Commission, where each employee is also registered. Neither one implies the other.
The form your presence takes is decided earlier still. The Business and Intellectual Property Authority registers companies and also close corporations, a simplified form widely used by smaller practices. In that case the evidence of existence is not a certificate of incorporation but a founding statement, and that is entirely regular.
The contract is written in English. Which collective arrangements apply is a sector-by-sector question, and the disciplinary regime is highly procedural, requiring written records at every stage: notice of hearing, hearing itself, reasoned decision. A dismissal handled loosely is easy to challenge before the labour bodies.
Payslip particulars, monthly withholding, contribution returns and the annual per-employee reconciliation obligations make up running payroll. Ask about employment equity reporting if your headcount crosses the thresholds that trigger it, and anticipate the authorisations required for a foreign employee, since they determine the earliest possible start date. Plan too for how payroll archives will be handed back to you if the provider changes, since nothing in local practice makes that automatic and reconstruction after the event is costly.
The network asks 8 documents of any firm wishing to represent it in Namibia. The table gives, for each of them, the exact wording in use locally, the body that issues it and the period during which it remains admissible. These are the terms to use in an application to the local administration.
Of these 8 documents, 5 are required of every applicant and 5 have a limited period of validity, the shortest being 3 months. 1 of these documents exist only in Namibia and have no equivalent in the common core of the network.
| Local wording | Issuing body | Validity | Source |
|---|---|---|---|
| Certificate of Incorporation (form CM1) — ou Founding Statement (form CC1) pour une close corporationCertificate of Incorporation, or Founding Statement (CC1) for a close corporation Deux formes juridiques coexistent en Namibie : la company, dont la BIPA délivre un Certificate of Incorporation à partir du formulaire CM1 accompagné des Memorandum and Articles of Association, et la close corporation, dont la pièce d'existence est le Founding Statement CC1. Ne pas rejeter un candidat qui produit un CC1. | Business and Intellectual Property Authority (BIPA) | No expiry Required | Official website |
| Taxpayer Identification Number (TIN) / tax reference numberTaxpayer Identification Number Attribué lors de l'enregistrement du contribuable sur le portail ITAS de la NamRA ; un enregistrement à la TVA distinct s'y ajoute au-delà du seuil. | Namibia Revenue Agency (NamRA) | No expiry Required | Official website |
| Good Standing Certificate (tax) / Tax Clearance CertificateTax Good Standing Certificate Demandée via le portail ITAS. | Namibia Revenue Agency (NamRA) | 3 months Required | Official website |
| Good Standing Certificate (Social Security Commission)Social Security Commission Good Standing Certificate L'employeur doit d'abord être immatriculé (formulaire 1, Application for Registration as an Employer) ; la SSC met à disposition une fonction « Validate Goodstanding » qui permet au réseau de contrôler lui-même l'attestation produite. | Social Security Commission of Namibia (SSC) | 3 months Required | Official website |
| Affirmative Action Compliance CertificateAffirmative Action Compliance Certificate Pièce spécifiquement namibienne, imposée par l'Affirmative Action (Employment) Act aux employeurs dits « relevant » — en pratique à partir d'un certain effectif — et systématiquement exigée dans les marchés publics. Le seuil d'effectif exact est À CONFIRMER auprès de la commission ; ne la réclamer qu'aux cabinets d'une certaine taille. | Employment Equity Commission (ex-Employment Equity Commissioner), ministère du Travail | 12 months Where applicable | Official website |
| Professional indemnity insurance certificateProfessional indemnity insurance certificate Aucune obligation légale générale de RC professionnelle pour la comptabilité ou la paie en Namibie ; pièce d'usage, à souscrire auprès d'un assureur supervisé par la NAMFISA. | Assureur agréé par la Namibia Financial Institutions Supervisory Authority (NAMFISA) | 12 months Where applicable | Official website |
| Registration with the Public Accountants' and Auditors' Board (PAAB) ; membership of the Institute of Chartered Accountants of Namibia (ICAN)PAAB registration; ICAN membership L'enregistrement au PAAB, sous le Public Accountants' and Auditors' Act, conditionne l'exercice en qualité de public accountant and auditor et donc l'audit ; la tenue de comptabilité et de paie pour un tiers ne paraît pas réservée. Le PAAB n'ayant pas pu être consulté (site injoignable), l'étendue exacte du monopole est À VÉRIFIER. Un indice utile : la constitution d'une close corporation exige déjà une lettre de consentement d'un registered public accountant. | Public Accountants' and Auditors' Board (PAAB) ; Institute of Chartered Accountants of Namibia (ICAN) | 12 months Where applicable | Official website |
| Certified copy of the identity document or passport of the director / memberCertified copy of the director's identity document La BIPA exige déjà des copies certifiées des pièces d'identité lors de l'immatriculation, elles sont donc disponibles chez tout candidat régulièrement constitué. | Ministry of Home Affairs, Immigration, Safety and Security | No expiry Required | Official website |
Namibia requires two good standing certificates rather than one: a tax certificate from NamRA and a social security certificate from the Social Security Commission, the latter also offering online verification. Local usage speaks of good standing where other countries speak of clearance, which regularly confuses files prepared elsewhere.
The affirmative action compliance certificate issued by the relevant commission of the labour ministry is a document specific to the country. It conditions access to certain public contracts and is a useful indicator of an employer's administrative maturity.
Namibia, by contrast, has adopted no general statute on personal data. No registration is possible, so the security of payroll data can only be secured contractually, which makes the wording of the processing schedule more important here than in most jurisdictions. In practice that schedule carries the whole weight of the arrangement, and it deserves to be negotiated rather than appended.
Trois attentions particulières en Namibie. D'abord la forme juridique : beaucoup de petits cabinets sont des close corporations et produisent un Founding Statement CC1 et non un Certificate of Incorporation — c'est une pièce d'existence légale parfaitement valable. Ensuite le vocabulaire : la Namibie parle de « good standing » là où d'autres pays parlent de tax clearance, et il faut DEUX good standing distincts, l'un de la NamRA pour le fiscal, l'autre de la Social Security Commission pour le social, cette dernière offrant en plus un service de vérification en ligne. Enfin, la Namibie n'a AUCUNE loi générale de protection des données personnelles : le Data Protection Bill de 2021 n'a pas été promulgué et il n'existe aucune obligation d'enregistrement, donc aucun récépissé à réclamer — la protection des données du cabinet ne peut être garantie que contractuellement.
The network opens 3 partner slots in Namibia, not one more. No firm is listed there yet: all 3 slots therefore remain open to applications.
No listed partner in Namibia has asked to appear in the public directory. The contact details of a firm are passed on to the client only when an assignment is awarded.
Filing an application does not amount to admission: every request is reviewed one by one. There is no minimum turnover requirement, and the partner selected invoices its fees directly.
Submit an application: we review your file, we check the documents required on the ground and we give you an answer, whether it is positive or not.
Namibia imposes no professional registration for payroll work, so we treat registration with the Public Accountants' and Auditors' Board or membership of the Institute of Chartered Accountants of Namibia as an advantage rather than an entry condition. The file rests on the certificate of incorporation or the founding statement, the taxpayer identification number, and the two good standing certificates, tax and social. In the absence of local data legislation, we require detailed contractual undertakings on how payroll files are retained and where they travel.
Describe your requirement. No firm is listed in Namibia yet: we review the request, then entrust it to a local firm that the network identifies and vets, or to the partner of a neighbouring country covering this territory. Your contact details are passed on to the selected firm alone.
Request a provider in NamibiaMobility is rarely arranged one country at a time. The neighbouring profiles follow the same outline.
These countries account for most of the requests received: each one has, in addition to its profile, six pages devoted to a single aspect of local payroll.
The information gathered on this page comes from the registers, administrations and bodies listed below, consulted when the reference base was compiled. It is given for guidance and does not replace the advice of a professional established in Namibia.