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Namibian President Hage Geingob asserts that the country will only work with investors who can operate locally with the view of exporting finished products as opposed to raw materials. This comes in the wake of the Namibian government banning the export of unprocessed lithium and critical minerals in a bid to encourage the development of more domestic processing.
Namibian President Hage Geingob asserts that the country will only work with investors who can operate locally with the view of exporting finished products as opposed to raw materials. This comes in the wake of the Namibian government banning the export of unprocessed lithium and critical minerals in a bid to encourage the development of more domestic processing.
Namibia has made it clear to these interested and potential parties that the country will only do business with stakeholders who share its vision of local value addition to the minerals to produce finished products for export, stated the President. As a country Namibia learned valuable lessons from history that nations which export their products in unprocessed forms at cheaper prices and buy back finished products at higher prices are not able to develop their economies to the extent required for shared wealth and development among their citizens, Geingob added.
Geingob further said the decision to ban the export of raw materials was endorsed by the Cabinet, in line with the 2021 Minerals Beneficiation Strategy. Recently, the government imposed a ban on the export of unprocessed crushed lithium ore, cobalt, manganese, graphite, and rare earth minerals in order to ensure local beneficiation.
This development is expected to spur investment in the establishment of local processing facilities by private entities or private-public partnerships. In this connection, Namibia can benefit from experiences and lessons from other SADC and African countries by exploiting regional and continental synergies in value-added production and enhancing export competitiveness.
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The President further emphasised Namibia’s open business environment, which is attested to by enacted progressive policies, regulatory frameworks, developed infrastructure, and political stability, for investors to come and invest in the mineral sector.
