By: Hee-Dee Walenga
During the ongoing Namibia-EU Business Forum, Joseph Mukendwa, Interim Head of the Namibia Green Hydrogen Programme (NGH2P), outlined that value addition, employment creation, and closing the inequality gap in Namibia are key to Namibia’s industrialisation hopes as he provided an update on the status of Namibia’s green hydrogen industry.
Mukendwa highlighted how Namibia’s Green Hydrogen plan changed from its original formulation in 2022.
“Over time, we’ve changed gear[s] and we’ve identified how we can utilise green hydrogen to be able to create opportunities locally in Namibia,” he stated.
Namibia has three key valleys when it comes to green hydrogen production. One is the southern valley, mostly in the //Kharas and Hardap regions. The central valley is in the Erongo Region and the northern valley is around the Kunene Region.
“We have about six that are within the Central Valley and three that are in the Southern Valley at different stages of development,” added Mukendwa.
“On the policy and legislation front, the policy is currently under draft. We are hoping that over the next year and a half we’ll be in a position to finalise the related legislation and get that sorted out,” the NGH2P interim head expressed.
In terms of infrastructure, Namibia conducted studies and is now embarking on stakeholder consultations and engagements to look at the best way to set up the infrastructure for the benefits of green hydrogen projects.
On the environmental end, “We’ve advanced quite a lot in the sustainable, environmental and social development sphere. We have the strategic, environmental and social assessments that are currently underway,” indicated Mukendwa.
The Strategic Environmental and Social Assessment (SESA) for the southern valley will be concluded in June of this year. The SESA for the central valley is currently underway.
“We are advancing and finalising a skills development strategy that outlines the needs for the sector, that will hopefully be concluded in the near future,” Mukendwa highlighted.
He shared that the sector has raised €98 million in grants, seen a €100 million investment in projects, and is able to unlock $16 billion in low-cost loans via the Climate Investment Funds (CIF) Industry Decarbonisation Program (IDP).
“From an employment perspective, we’ve seen in excess of 900 jobs created today. But indications are that we should be in a position to create in excess of 30,000 jobs by 2030,” he remarked.
Speaking on challenges, the interim head highlighted financing gaps, long-term off-take agreements, infrastructure development, and skill shortages as the current obstacles faced by the sector.
“This is why we have some of these platforms to engage with our partners, so that we can find solutions to the challenges that we are identifying,” he concluded.
