Namibia’s National Planning Commission Director General, Kaire Mbuende, has called on African and global leaders to ensure the hydrogen economy delivers real benefits for Namibians rather than repeating the limited gains of past extractive industries.
Opening the Global African Hydrogen Summit 2025 in Windhoek, Mbuende said the sector must drive industrial growth, job creation and community empowerment.
“The hydrogen revolution must not replicate the extractive models of the past. It must inaugurate a new era of value addition on the Namibian soil. As stated in the beginning, our people have great expectations from this summit. With us, we implore the summit to craft concrete resolutions. Actionable strategies and binding commitments,” he said.
Mbuende stressed that Namibia’s newly launched National Development Plan 6 positions green industrialisation as central to economic transformation.
He pointed to the country’s natural endowments and policy framework as a strong base for hydrogen-led development. “We are not content to be exporters of growing molecules. We are committed to building industry, creating jobs and empowering communities,” he said.
Namibia Investment Promotion and Development Board CEO, Nangula Uaandja, told delegates that the government is accelerating hydrogen and green industrialisation efforts under President Netumbo Nandi-Ndaitwah.
“As we all know, we are having our first female president and we are now talking about ambition in action and if you want to see action, welcome to Namibia under the leadership of her excellency Netumbo Nandi-Ndaitwah,” Uaandja said.
She added that the administration is moving from planning to implementation.
“The journey that we started of green hydrogen we are seeing action first tracked through the development of the green industrialisation and everything else that we need to do to support the development of the Namibian economy to create employment opportunities for our people and of course to support their move to decarbonise our planet,” she said.
The summit has drawn African and global heads of government, ministers, policymakers and industry leaders for two days of high-level discussions on the future of hydrogen.
