Free business email in Namibia: set up name@yourbusiness.com.na

Namibian businesses deal with two demanding audiences: government and parastatal buyers who procure through the Central Procurement Board, and foreign tourists and agents who book Etosha, Sossusvlei and the coast months ahead by email. Both judge the address before the content. A .com.na address costs a modest yearly fee in Namibia dollars, the mailboxes can be free, and the setup is four DNS records.

Quick answer

Register yourbusiness.com.na at an NA-NiC-accredited registrar (not a direct .na, which is priced as a premium). Create a free OquMail workspace with no card, add the domain, paste four DNS records at the registrar, click Verify and create your mailboxes. Add the mailbox to Outlook or your phone with the settings below.

Choosing your domain: .com.na, .co.na or .na

The .na country domain is administered by NA-NiC, the Namibian Network Information Centre, and sold through accredited registrars. The second-level endings are inexpensive and are what Namibian companies use; a direct two-letter .na is sold at premium prices and is rarely worth it for a small business.

• .com.na: the most common ending for Namibian companies; affordable yearly renewal in Namibia dollars
• .co.na: also available and equally recognised; pick whichever is free for your name
• .org.na: for NGOs and associations
• .na: short and expensive; fine for a brand with budget, unnecessary for most SMEs
• .com: fine for tourism operators whose customers are mostly abroad; Namibian buyers accept it

Why a domain address matters in Namibia

Public tenders through the Central Procurement Board of Namibia and the parastatals compare the bidder's details against the BIPA registration and the NamRA tax number, and an email address on the company domain is part of the picture a vetting officer builds. In tourism the comparison is with lodges in Botswana and South Africa that already use domain addresses; a quote from a personal webmail address loses to an equal quote from reservations@yourlodge.com.na. For mining-services and logistics firms in Walvis Bay, foreign principals often refuse to onboard a supplier without a company email.

Step by step: from domain to working inbox

1. Register yourbusiness.com.na at an NA-NiC-accredited registrar. Pay by card or EFT; registration is usually live within a day.
2. Go to oqumail.com and create a free workspace with your name and a password. No card, no trial.
3. In the dashboard choose Add domain and type yourbusiness.com.na. OquMail shows the four DNS records to add.
4. At the registrar open the DNS settings for the domain and add the MX, SPF, DKIM and DMARC records exactly as shown.
5. Return to OquMail and click Verify. The live DNS check tells you which record is still missing.
6. Create mailboxes: info@, reservations@ or sales@, accounts@ and one per person, up to 15 with 5 GB each.
7. Send a test from webmail, then add the account to Outlook or the phone mail app with the settings below.

The four DNS records OquMail needs

Namibian registrars often pre-set an MX for a bundled mailbox. Delete it and keep only mail.oqumail.com. If the domain is on Cloudflare, keep the MX and TXT records unproxied.

• MX — host @, value mail.oqumail.com, priority 10
• SPF (TXT at @) — v=spf1 MX (Mail Exchanger — where incoming email is delivered) a:mail.oqumail.com ~all
• DKIM (TXT at your selector ._domainkey) — v=DKIM1; k=rsa; p=… (the exact key is shown in your OquMail dashboard)
• DMARC (TXT at _dmarc) — v=DMARC1; p=none; rua=mailto:dmarc@yourdomain.com

OquMail connection settings

• Incoming (IMAP): mail.oqumail.com, port 993, SSL/TLS
• Outgoing (SMTP): mail.oqumail.com, port 587, STARTTLS
• Username: your full email address (you@yourdomain.com)
• Password: the same password you use for OquMail webmail

What it costs

The domain is a yearly fee in Namibia dollars at the registrar. The email is free: OquMail's free plan has no card step and includes 15 mailboxes, 3 domains, 5 GB per mailbox, webmail, IMAP and SMTP, delivery logs and a send API. A seasonal lodge with a handful of staff does not need a per-user monthly subscription in foreign currency to have reservations@ and accounts@.

Pitfalls common in Namibia

• Bundled hosting mailboxes with no DKIM: booking confirmations to German and South African agents land in junk.
• Choosing SSL on port 587 in Outlook. It must be STARTTLS.
• MTC and TN Mobile data, and most home fibre, block outbound port 25. Port 587 is all a mail app needs.
• Keeping a Gmail or iway.na address on the booking platforms and the Google Business Profile after the domain is live.
• Skipping DMARC. Deposit-redirect fraud against lodges and their agents is a known pattern; publish at least p=none and read the reports.
• Letting the domain lapse during the off season. Turn on auto-renew.

Common questions

Do I need a BIPA registration for a .com.na?

Registrars sell .com.na to businesses and individuals; have the BIPA details ready in case they ask. Register the domain in the exact name on the BIPA certificate so the email, the bank account and the invoices all match.

Does it work with Outlook and my phone?

Yes. Add an IMAP account with the settings above in Outlook, Apple Mail or the Gmail app, using your full address as the username.

What are the limits?

15 mailboxes, 3 domains, 5 GB per mailbox, no expiry. Extra mailboxes are added on request without touching DNS.

Want to see how your own domain is set up? Use the free SPF checker, DMARC checker and MX lookup: they run in your browser and store nothing.