The Namibia dollar
Currency · NAD · $ · 1 country
The Bank of Namibia issued its first Namibia dollar notes in September 1993, three and a half years after independence, replacing the South African rand at par. The rand never left. It is still legal tender in Namibia, the dollar is pegged to it one to one, and both circulate side by side inside the Common Monetary Area.
The sign
The Bank of Namibia writes its dollar with the ordinary dollar sign and an N for Namibia in front, as in N$10 or N$200. The President chose the unit and its symbols, and the bank says the name dollar was picked as a break with the colonial past.
The same sign stands for 28 other currencies, among them the US dollar and the East Caribbean dollar.
- ISO code
- NAD
- ISO number
- 516
- Subunit
- cent, 1/100
An amount, written out
$1,234.50
- $1,234.50EnglishNamibia
The sign in code
HTML, CSS, JavaScript, UTF-8
- HTML
$$$- CSS
content: "\0024";- JavaScript
"\u0024"- UTF-8
0x24- UTF-16
0x0024- UTF-32
0x00000024
Where the Namibian dollar is the official currency
Namibia uses the dollar, pegged to the South African rand at par. The rand is legal tender there as well, as it is across the Common Monetary Area with Lesotho and Eswatini.
Legal tender alongside it
About the Namibian dollar
How Namibia chose a currency tied to the rand
Under South African rule the territory, then South West Africa, used South Africa's money: the pound, and from 1961 the rand. The Bank of Namibia Act set up the central bank in July 1990. The IMF, the UNDP and Sweden's development agency lent technical help, and the act gave the bank the task of issuing the notes and minting the coins of the country that had become independent that March.
Before independence SWAPO had weighed four designs, from staying on the rand with no central bank at all to a fully independent currency backed by its own reserves. A 2011 study of the regime records that the second of them was judged the best fit: a central bank with a narrow scope for discretion that could lean on South Africa's experience. A technical committee on the national currency began work in September 1990, and the dollar reached circulation only once its specifications were settled.
Who chose the name and the designs
The Bank of Namibia Act split the decisions. The President determined the unit and its symbols, and the Minister of Finance approved the denominations, composition, form and design. Other names were floated, among them a Namibian kalahar after the Kalahari. A tender for the note designs in October 1991 went to AB Tumba Bruk of Sweden, and a separate competition chose the coin designs.
The first notes, of 10, 50 and 100 dollars, came out on 15 September 1993 and the first coins that December. Notes of 20 and 200 dollars followed in 1996 with added security features, which the older values were then upgraded to carry.
Why the rand is still legal tender
Namibia belongs to the Common Monetary Area with South Africa, Lesotho and Eswatini. The rand is legal tender throughout. Lesotho, Eswatini and Namibia issue their own currencies at par with it. Exchange controls and monetary policy across the area still reflect the influence of the South African Reserve Bank.
Trade with South Africa is settled in rand, which saves changing money at the border. The Bank of Namibia put the rand's share of Namibia's trade at over half in 2003.
What the notes and coins show
Kaptein Hendrik Witbooi, a Nama leader who led revolts against German rule, was for years the portrait on every note. The Bank of Namibia reads the designs as four themes: the armed struggle through Witbooi, sovereignty through Parliament, nationhood through the flag and the coat of arms, and the land's diversity through its antelopes. Each value has its own antelope. They run from the springbok on the N$10 and the red hartebeest on the N$20 to the kudu, the oryx and the roan antelope. The series of 2012 kept Witbooi except on the 10 and 20 dollar notes, which moved to the founding president, Sam Nujoma. De La Rue, which designed and printed a later series with the bank, says each value there repeats its antelope in the security thread and the watermark, and the bank has added commemorative N$30 and N$60 notes.
Coins run from 5 cents to 10 dollars. The cent coins are nickel-plated steel. The dollar coins are brass. No 5 cent coins have been produced since January 2019, though they are still used in daily transactions.
Common questions
Questions about the Namibian dollar
Can South African rand be used in Namibia?
Yes. The rand is legal tender in Namibia, and the Namibia dollar is pegged to it at par, so a rand and a dollar are worth the same in any shop. Both countries belong to the Common Monetary Area, together with Lesotho and Eswatini, and the rand is legal tender across all four.
Why did Namibia keep its currency at par with the rand?
When it set up the Bank of Namibia in 1990 the new state had little experience of running monetary policy, and a peg let it rely on South Africa's. The planners had weighed four designs, ranging from using the rand with no central bank at all to a fully independent currency backed by its own reserves. They chose the second, a central bank with limited discretion. The dollar that followed in 1993 kept the rand's value and gave the country notes and coins of its own.
Which antelope is on each Namibian banknote?
The springbok on the N$10, the red hartebeest on the N$20, the kudu on the N$50, the oryx on the N$100 and the roan antelope on the N$200. The Bank of Namibia says the antelopes stand for the natural diversity of the land, one of four themes it gives for the designs.