By: David Shoombe
Namibia’s domestic economic pressures have highlighted the need to accelerate value addition and ensure that the benefits of mineral resources reach the people through value extraction.
Commenting on the recently concluded 13th Mining Expo 2026, Professor of Economics, Roman Grynberg indicated that, in its current state, Namibia is not yet ready to add value to its minerals due to a lack of adequate energy and overall preparedness.
Grynberg noted that when it comes to gold, the country does not have a refinery, which makes it impossible to benefit from value addition. He noted that diamonds are slowly becoming semi-precious stones, while zinc needs a lot of electricity to refine, which Namibia is lacking.
He also poured cold water on the President’s nuclear sector development aspirations, saying it could be a challenge to develop value addition for uranium.
However, Grynberg noted that oil is the only commodity that Namibia can add value to if it can compel industrial players to refine the oil and sell gas to generate electricity for export.
The recently concluded Mining Expo called for Namibians to partake in the mining sector and utilise national resources. The current context of mining and valued addition is determined by capital investments and the availability of electricity, which is a necessity in the mining industry.
At the launch of Expo, the President of Namibia, Netumbo Nandi-Ndaitwah, called for the mining sector to honor its commitment of creating 18,000 jobs so that Namibians benefit from their own natural resources.
Nandi-Ndaitwah showed her strong commitment to the Namibian utilisation of uranium for electricity generation.
She also noted that Namibia has been mobilising support and seeking investment for the mining sector in order to add value to its minerals, as a way to reduce youth unemployment.
Namibia is at a crossroads in solving the challenge of inequality, youth unemployment, and raising the public sector debts.
The 2026 Article IV Consultations Report by the International Monetary Fund (IMF) on Namibia indicates that Namibia’s economy is faced with headwinds, including depressed global diamond demands, gradual recovery of livestock production and elevated fuel prices from geopolitical conf;icts.
The IMF showed structural rigidity, policy uncertainty, and a large public sector continuing to weigh on productivity and employment creation.
African countries such as Zimbabwe, the Democratic Republic of Congo, and Uganda have started semi-processing their minerals in an effort to retain more value from their natural resources and keep investment within their countries.
Zimbabwe has banned the export of unprocessed lithium and has moved toward establishing local processing capacity.
The country has also opened one of Africa’s largest lithium processing plants, with a deadline set for 2027 for a total ban on the export of unprocessed lithium.
Sustainable energy generation in Namibia remains a thorn in the country ‘s industrialisation agenda.
With hope in new emerging industries, it includes green hydrogen and oil and gas.
