Africa-Press – Namibia. NAMIBIA Investment, Promotion and Development Board chief executive officer Nangula Uaandja says they are proactively engaging the government to find solutions to securing work permits and visas for expatriate labour and investors.
She said the process is being conducted with a balance that clearly distinguishes the needed imported skills that do not overshadow the need to create opportunities for local labour.
She said this in an interview with Desert Radio yesterday. Uaandja added that the board is working closely with the home affairs ministry to ensure expatriates’ needs are catered to. She said the forthcoming green hydrogen project could be one of the key projects that will need the importation of scarce skills.
She said Cabinet has already made a decision that the board should work with the home affairs ministry to identify skills needed for that specific project and for visas to be prioritised.
“Let me give you an example of the green hydrogen project. Namibia has selected a company called Hyphen as the preferred bidder, going into negotiations for them to develop the first large-scale investment of its type. We are already working with home affairs to identify the types of visas and skills required,” she noted.
Uaandja emphasised that Namibia is engaging a number of role players, including the African Continental Free Trade Area agreement that gives Namibia access to the larger African market.
“Namibia is a small market, so to bring investors to Namibia for the Namibian market, is quite limiting and is a challenge. However, when you speak to investors in light of the African Continental Free Trade Area agreement, and you showcase Namibia’s potential as a logistics hub, the conversation changes,” Uaandja noted.
She added that most Namibian deplomats in other countries have said there are investors interested in investing in Namibia but are looking for viable projects. INVESTMENT SECTORS She said of late Namibia has been attracting investments in the mineral and natural resources sectors.
“If you look at most of our GDP (gross domestic product), it is driven by mining, and then, of course, the fishing sector and then we have the agriculture and tourism sectors making their own contribution,” she said.
She added that, “From 2000 to 2015, there were a number of investments but mostly in capital-intensive sectors. Companies such as Husab, B2Gold, Ohorongo brought a lot of investment, but they did not create a lot of jobs.” She said there is a greater need for the country to diversify and look at sectors that have potential to create jobs.
“Now, we are considering agriculture and tourism, they are labour-intensive and can create more jobs for our people. However, their contribution to GDP does not match the number of people employed, but probably productivity is not where it should be or because of the need to increase the value chain, so that we can add more value to goods produced in Namibia,” she said.
Uaandja said the focus is to continue attracting investment in traditional, legacy sectors and also to introduce new sectors such as agri-processing. “From the agricultural point of view, how can we add more value? How can we move into adjacent sectors that can increase jobs for our people? We have identified five sectors: agri-processing, metals and basic minerals, mining and adjacent sectors, transport and logistics, and we have added renewable energy services and tourism,” she said.
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