The World Bank says Namibia’s green hydrogen programme is worthy of praise, and holds the potential to lift many of the country’s citizens out of poverty. The views were made by the Bretton-Woods Institute’s vice-president for Eastern and Southern Africa, Victoria Kwakwa during a courtesy call to President Hage Geingob at State House. “This green industrialisation, holds great significant promise, this green industrialisation is really tapping all your natural resources, leveraging into where the global community is going, so I think that’s a good place to begin,” Kwakwa said during her meeting with Geingob. Kwakwa also highlighted recent investments in the green hydrogen space in Namibia, notably by HyIron, which intends to refine iron resources in using clean energy, a first for Africa, and the anticipated US$10 billion investment by Hyphen Energy’s in the Tsau //Khaeb National Park, which once commissioned, is expected to 300 000 tons of green hydrogen for regional and global markets. “We hope that these investments, these early investments will be catalytic and really bringing others in demonstrating and showing that Namibia has a track record,” she said. Kwakwa also commended efforts by Namibia to ensure local value-addition of its minerals, would occur, saying it would help drive down unemployment. “The approach that you're taking of in the discussion to the private sector that's coming in, also stressing domestic content, stressing the domestic jobs, domestic procurement, I think all of that will contribute to overtime, alleviating this employment challenge,” she said. “I guess what I'm saying is that we see you do it in your green industrialization approach, trying to add value to your green resources here, before they're exported is a right approach is a fundamental approach, the way to go,” she added. Beneficiation strategy welcomed Other countries were emulating Namibia’s efforts around local value-addition, Kwakwa noted. I think several other countries in Africa, are also realising that this is the way to grow. Zambia is trying to add value to their lives to produce electric batteries, working with the Democratic Republic of Congo, so I think that move is the right direction,” she said. The World Bank in its efforts was happy to support Namibia execute its green hydrogen strategy, Kwakwa said. “I think as the World Bank, we are happy to support in any way that we can, and we are honoured to have had a chance to support you in the strategy that you are putting in place,” she said. Despite commending Namibia’s efforts around being an early starter in the green hydrogen space, Kwakwa appealed to government to not abandon other sectors of the economy. While green hydrogen had the ability to uplift the economy, it gaining prominence should not leave government not prioritising other sectors of the economy, Kwakwa warned. “The green industrialization, yes, it's the one that's going to do the heavy lifting, but you're also going to have to continue work on supporting Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs), you know, because it is really important for the equity and addressing some of the significant inequalities and really create an ecosystem that allows them to have the skills and to have the access to finance that allows them also to thrive,” she said.

World Bank lauds green hydrogen programme