Africa-Press – Namibia. FIRSTRAND Namibia Limited’s chief financial officer (CFO) Oscar Capelao has resigned to join the Ministry of Finance.
He said he is up to the task of helping to craft the country’s tax policy, especially for green hydrogen and petroleum.
His resignation was announced by FirstRand Namibia on Wednesday, and it is effective end of April. He confirmed to The Namibian that he will join the ministry in the finance department.
A chartered accountant by profession, Capelao has been with the FirstRand Namibia Group for 17 years, of which 10 years was as the CFO.
He has been instrumental in assisting the FirstRand Namibia Group to diversify to its current standing.
Capelao’s departure from FirstRand now sees three of Namibia’s biggest banks looking for new CFOs, after Standard Bank Namibia and Nedbank Namibia’s CFOs also stepped down.
Last year, finance minister Iipumbu Shiimi announced during the tabling of the 2022/23 budget that following the successful establishment of the Namibia Revenue Agency, the creation of the tax policy unit in the Ministry of Finance had begun, and the recruitment process to capacitate the structure was set to commence.
It is expected that Capelao will most likely head this unit, though there are talks that such a unit already exists.
He told The Namibian yesterday that he was particularly interested in tax research and policy formulation to ensure solid tax codes are developed.
Local daily The Brief early this year reported that Namibia is expected to finalise a tax regime for its burgeoning green hydrogen sector by the end of the year.
Green Hydrogen commissioner James Mnyupe has said the country completed a benchmarking exercise to assist policymakers in deciding on a new hydrogen tax system.
A tax policy unit is generally tasked to guide and inform the tax policy debate, based on facts, independent data analysis, and multidisciplinary efforts.
According to an International Monetary Fund note, these units also generally maintain oversight to ensure integrity of the tax system, and play a critical role in informing stakeholders along the path towards a coherent, manageable, fair, and efficient design of the tax system.
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