The News
Namibia’s president has a message for foreign investors eyeing the country’s critical minerals: build processing plants at home, or look elsewhere.
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president → have → home
“When you are coming to Namibia, you don’t want to be a briefcase business,” Netumbo Nandi-Ndaitwah told Semafor at an Invest Africa event on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly this week.
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Ndaitwah → come → Assembly
“You have to put up a processing plant in our country.
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You → have → country
Namibia is a mining-based economy, she said, whose minerals have for too long been exported raw and shipped back as finished goods.
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minerals → base → goods
In exchange for processing at home, she offered investors a long-term partnership and a stable place to do business, pointing to 36 years of peace since independence.
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she → offer → independence
She also wants foreign firms to team up with local entrepreneurs, “so that you become part and parcel of us.
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you → want → us
Her pitch reflects a hardening line across the continent.
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pitch → reflect → continent
With demand for critical minerals surging and Washington and Beijing competing for supply, African governments are betting they have the leverage to demand more than royalties.
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they → surge → royalties
About a dozen countries, including Guinea, Malawi and Zimbabwe, have restricted exports of unprocessed minerals to force local refining, borrowing from Indonesia’s nickel playbook.
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countries → include → playbook
The goal is to capture more of the value chain, and the jobs that come with it, rather than remain suppliers of raw inputs for other countries’ industries.
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that → capture → industries
Know More
Nandi-Ndaitwah is also going further than many peers on ownership.
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Ndaitwah → go → ownership
Asked whether local partnership would be mandatory for foreign investors, she told Semafor: “In fact, we are putting it in the law.”
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we → ask → law
That promise has a long history.
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promise → have → history
Namibia’s empowerment framework won cabinet approval in 2015 and was meant to become law by 2018.
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framework → win → 2018
It stalled over a clause forcing businesses owned by previously advantaged Namibians to cede 25% to previously disadvantaged citizens, which was dropped in 2018.
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which → stall → 2018
Business groups also warned it would scare off foreign investment.
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it → warn → investment
As recently as last October, officials described the bill as at an “advanced stage.”
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officials → describe → stage
Mining is moving faster.
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Mining → move → ?
Namibia has required 15% local ownership for new mining licenses since 2021.
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Namibia → require → 2021
Officials floated a 51% threshold last year, drawing pushback from the Chamber of Mines, which warned against importing other countries’ models.
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which → float → models
Nandi-Ndaitwah dismissed comparisons with South Africa’s empowerment rules, saying it depends on the approach.
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it → dismiss → approach
She cited tourism conservancies she oversaw as environment minister.
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she → cite → minister
There, investors started with 60% to 70% stakes that stepped down to roughly 51-49 with local communities.
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that → start → communities
Step Back
Behind the hard line is a jobs emergency.
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emergency → step → line
And we are sitting on a time bomb,” Nandi-Ndaitwah told Semafor.
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Ndaitwah → sit → Semafor
“Even when you have your mine there, it’s not safe.”
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it → have → mine
Nandi-Ndaitwah won the presidency in 2024 on a pledge to spend 85 billion Namibian dollars (about $5 billion) creating 500,000 jobs by 2029, a steep target for a country of 3 million people with a GDP of about $14 billion.
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Ndaitwah → win → billion
She framed the stakes in continental terms: without opportunity at home, young Africans will keep leaving.
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Africans → frame → home
“If they have to leave, it is by choice,” she said.
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she → have → choice
“But as it stands now, they are pushed out by the conditions in the continent.”
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they → stand → continent
Offshore oil discoveries could bankroll her jobs promise, or deepen the sense that Namibia’s wealth flows elsewhere.
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wealth → bankroll → sense
The Aporia
