Namibian Prime Minister Hage Geingob has urged a review of the current agreement under which only 10% of the value of rough mined within the country is supplied to local factories and the rest exported to the De Beers operation centre in Botswana, according to Namibian media reports.

The PM is reported to have said that this step was necessary to create more jobs within the country. He was speaking to senior executives of the diamond industry including Namibia Diamond Trading Company (NDTC) CEO Shihaleni Ndjaba, Namdeb CEO Inge Zaamwani-Kamwi and others.

The 10 per cent agreement became operational earlier this year, prior to which all the rough was exported to London, from where the Namibian sightholders received their supplies.

Currently there are 11 factories operated by De Beers sightholders in Namibia and these employ about 900 people. These numbers may change when the new sightholder lists are finalised for the next contract beginning in 2015.