Namibia should focus on beneficiation
SWAKOPMUND – Namibia still has some work to do in terms of value addition in the mining and fishing industries if it wants to develop its economy.
This was said by High Economic Intelligence Namibia managing director Salomo Hei in an interview with Nampa on the sidelines of the Nedbank Namibia economic presentation and panel discussion in Swakopmund on Wednesday.
Namibia is heavily dependent on the extraction and processing of minerals for export, with taxes and royalties from mining accounting for 25% of its revenue.
The bulk of the revenue is created by diamond mining, which makes up 7.2% of the over 15% that mining contributes to Namibia’s GDP currently.
According to Hei, the majority of the country’s minerals leave Namibia in raw form, which is not the best approach in terms of a developing economy.
“We have uranium here at the coast, which is exported in raw form. We are currently in a green energy mix in terms of trying to get green, clean energy, including nuclear. A big component of nuclear energy is uranium input, which we have, so to what extent are we considering constructing a nuclear plant in the medium to long term? The issue around our diamonds – Botswana is having talks with De Beers in that respect because they are of the view that the current allocation of their diamonds is not comparable with their current shareholding, so they want to renegotiate the possibility of value addition and beneficiation,” Hei said.
He added that agriculture is another sector that has the potential to grow and contribute greatly to the country’s GDP due to its labour absorption rate.
“We should remember that Namibia’s current job profile is not of very high skills set. What you want is to be able to make sure that you can absorb that huge potential in a sector like agriculture, as a result, then increasing disposable income in Namibia, therefore stimulating domestic demand.”
Namibia’s GDP is projected at close to 3% in 2023, and it is expected to pick up, owing to increased mining activities.