Namibia to spend $12.4B on projects in next five years

Namibia President Hage Geingob on Wednesday said the country will invest 12.44 billion U.S dollars over the next five years on plans which include upgrading and revamping hospitals, and building water and energy infrastructure.

The investment package under a National Development Plan will be deployed on programmes and projects which also cover agriculture, technical and vocational training, and industrial development.

“The project would involve modernising and up-scaling the production sectors and systems including agriculture, manufacturing, fisheries, mining and tourism,” Geingob said at the launch of the programme.

The programme would also promote investments by independent power producers to meet growing electricity demand in the uranium-rich country.

“By focusing on these sectors, we should be able to create more jobs to absorb new entrants into the labour market,” Geingob added.

Namibia, which suffers from perennial drought, also intends to use sea water by building a desalination plant, a move that it hopes will turn coastal towns into agricultural production hubs.