President Hage Geingob says the country’s energy and mineral prospects have poised Namibia to become a country of the future.
“Namibia is resilient and resurgent. Our country is in demand and seen as a model for the green energy transition.
The discovery of oil holds exciting prospects for economic growth and prosperity,” he said yesterday.
Geingob said although there is an emphasis on green hydrogen as a future energy source, the country will not overlook its recently discovered oil reserves.
“There is no contradiction, we can get oil now.
It will be our immediate source for the next 10 years.
“But green hydrogen is a future, long-term climate mitigation source the world is looking to, and which Namibia is leading.
We should be proud of that,” he said.
Geingob was speaking at a press briefing on the highlights of the ‘Year of Revival’ at State House yesterday.
The president also noted the progress made with the strategic partnership of the European Union (EU) on sustainable raw material value chains and renewable hydrogen.
“I endorsed with European Commission president Ursula von der Leyen the roadmap for an EU-Namibia strategic partnership on a sustainable raw materials value chain and renewable hydrogen, which will unlock N$20 billion in investment in the sector,” he said.
The partnership came to fruition with an initial signing of an agreement between Namibia and the EU at the 27th Conference of Parties (COP27) in November last year.
The partnership will facilitate investment into the development of a secure and sustainable supply of refined and raw materials, and renewable hydrogen to support the green transformation of the country and the EU.
Geingob also announced that Namibia will be part of the EU critical raw materials club.
The club will be launched at this year’s COP.
The club aims to convene all stakeholders that use and produce materials for batteries and green tech to collaborate in diversifying critical raw material value chains.
Minister of mines and energy Tom Alweendo said the country is collaborating with Shell and TotalEnergies to accelerate its oil production process.
“If everything goes according to plan, we should be able to draw the first oil in the next four or five years.
If we do that in four or five years, that will be quite a record, because we know of countries which have discovered oil, and 10 years later they are still not producing oil,” he said.
Alweendo said Namibia hopes to emulate Guyana, which discovered oil in 2015 and drew its first oil in 2019.
He said the ministry is committed to developing local content policies.
“What is going to be more economically beneficial for us is to make sure we promote local content. Much of the services and products the new industry is going to need would have to be produced within the local economy,” he said.
The mines ministry held an inter-governmental engagement on the local content framework during late March and early April.
In May 2023, the government held a national workshop on local content policy with local entrepreneurs, non-governmental organisations, policymakers and other interested stakeholders.
Alweendo said it is the position of the ministry and the Cabinet that Namibia would not export its critical raw materials without value addition.
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