Green Hydrogen local content push lacks official policy
2025-09-11
The Global Africa Green Hydrogen Summit on Wednesday, September 11, highlighted the government’s plan for Namibians to benefit directly from green hydrogen initiatives through local content development. But the Namibia Green Hydrogen Programme last month said there were no immediate plans to develop a local content policy.
Local content policies require companies to use domestically made goods, services, and a local workforce. The primary objective of these policies is to promote inclusive economic growth, create jobs, develop skills, and ensure that resources benefit the local population by encouraging the use of local services, goods, and labor force, thereby empowering communities and reducing dependency on foreign expertise.
The government, at the opening of the summit in Windhoek, stressed Namibia’s ambition for local content through value addition and industrialisation at home. The summit is taking place in Windhoek from 9 to 11 September 2025.
Speaking at the event, Deputy Prime Minister Natangwe Ithete said, “Let us now work on consuming what we produce locally to drive local industrialisation, value addition, and energy security,” thereby signaling the government’s intention to ensure that Namibia’s green energy potential is leveraged to respond to the country’s needs and benefit Namibians directly.
Ithete said local content plans must be visible in physical buildings and other tangible benefits for the betterment of the lives of Namibians.
“We must demand accountability from ourselves and from each other. Each project must be able to point to schools built, skills transferred, families lifted out of poverty, and communities made stronger. This is the test of leadership, and this is how we will write a new story for Africa—one of resilience, progress, and shared prosperity,” he emphasised.
Ithete also added: “For Namibia, green industrialisation is a pathway to dignity, jobs, and empowerment for our communities. It is a catalyst for breaking the cycle of exporting raw materials and import-dependency.”
In the same tenor, National Planning Commission director general Kaire Mbuende explained how Namibia has these ambitions in the country’s sixth national development plan (NDP6).
“NDP6 sets bold targets for renewable energy deployment, green hydrogen production and value addition, industrialisation (products) such as fertilizers, green steel, and clean fuels,” he said.
Mbuende stated that this plan is designed to capture value along the entire hydrogen value chain.
“Our approach is deliberate. We are not content to be exporters of raw molecules. We are committed to building industries, creating jobs, and empowering communities,” he said to the summit delegates.
The director general said the government’s plans are underpinned by policy coherence.
He added, “Our national development plan launched this year, positioned green industrialisation as a central pillar of our socio-economic transformation.”
The Namibia Green Hydrogen Programme, on the other hand, told civil society organisations weeks ago that there is no local content policy.
Head of impact, environmental, social and governance, Eline van der Linden, told a group of civil society organisation representatives that they “haven't started talking about that yet.” When asked about the policy, she responded: “I think you may be confused with oil and gas, because oil and gas have been talking about a local content policy.”
However, she did highlight that the current agreement between the government and Hyphen Energy has a provision for 30% local content and 90% local employment.
She said: “But in the agreement between the government of Namibia and Hyphen, when they put their tender in for this big project in the south, they proposed what they call a social economic development framework, an SED framework, and they have highlighted in there that they are looking at 30% local content for this digital project. They're also looking at 90% local employment, and of that, a certain percentage, youth employment.”
Namibia’s green hydrogen strategy outlines that “the local content manufacturing, e.g., in renewable energy components and sustainable biomass harvesting, will further enhance economic development”.
A civil society-driven Masterclass was held on the peripheries of the summit under the theme People, Power and Participation: Civil Society Perspectives on Green Hydrogen. The session aimed at exploring how local communities, youth, and marginalised groups can play an active role in shaping policies and benefit-sharing mechanisms related to the green hydrogen sector.
The masterclass discussions were anchored on four themes: embedding inclusion and equity, transparency and public oversight, consultation and consent, which unpacked the concept of free, prior, and informed consent, and building trust through accountability.
One of the speakers, Nama Traditional Leaders Association’s Johannes Ortmann, called for meaningful participation of local communities in green hydrogen developments and called for funding for local organisations to conduct independent environmental, cultural, and social impact studies, in addition to Hyphen Energy’s own impact assessments.
This was the second summit hosted by Namibia under the theme of “Ambition in Action: Fuelling Africa’s Green Industrial Revolution”.
The aim is to create partnerships, investments, and financing for green energy projects across Africa.
Over 700 delegates attended the conference, including Ministers and delegations from Kenya, Germany, Mauritania, Japan, China, Algeria, Angola, Egypt, Climate Investment Funds, and the United Nations Industrial Development Organisation.
The Namibian Government has a 24% equity stake in one project through Hyphen Hydrogen Energy (Pty) Ltd.
This stake was acquired through the SDG Namibia One Fund.
Namibia currently has four green hydrogen projects: Hyphen Hydrogen Energy (the only government-funded project), HyIron - Oshivela, Daures Green Hydrogen Village, and Cleanergy Solutions.
This article is produced within the framework of the EU-funded Eco Dialogue Collective – Empowering Media and Civil Society for a Transparent Green Future project. The project is being implemented by a consortium of four organisations: The DW Akademie, the NMT Media Foundation, the Institute for Public Policy Research, and the Legal Assistance Centre.
POWER OPENING: Deputy Prime Minister Natangwe Ithete (centre) called for greater direct benefits for Namibians at the opening of the Global Africa Hydrogen Summit in Windhoek on Wednesday. He was joined by Deputy Minister Gaudentia Kröhne, National Planning Commission Director-General Kaire Mbuende (left), and Namibia Investment Promotion and Development Board CEO Nangula Uaandja (right), among others. Photo: NIPDB
TEXT BY SHELLEYGAN PETERSEN (NMT Media Foundation Project Officer)