The brave move by President Netumbo Nandi-Ndaitwah to curb raw material exports and encourage potential investors to contemplate value-addition to increase national income and create jobs for the public is commendable.

Namibia requires synergy from both domestic businesses and foreign investors to industrialise, given its natural resources as well as the wealth and experience of the international community. To achieve industrialisation, Namibia must prioritise fundamental reforms, a realistic economic plan, and a shift towards refining raw materials into high-value commodities. 

Investors contribute both financial and non-financial resources; thus, having minerals without money or knowledge is not relevant. It is more about gaining a common comprehension. As a result, Namibia should not focus on the percentage allocated by investors, but rather work smartly to encourage investors to contribute to social and economic development by simplifying policies and creating an appealing environment for manufacturing. 

This is how to attract investors and persuade them to set up industries in the country: allowing them to build schools and health facilities. This is not weak negotiation on the part of the legitimate owners and policymakers, as indicated in Article 100 of Namibia’s Constitution, but rather an understanding that Namibia’s economic future will be defined by the strength of its institutions rather than the price of its raw materials. Industrialisation will not occur merely because Namibia has minerals, land and labour; it will occur only when governments provide frameworks that allow industries to develop, scale and compete worldwide. The focus should be on encouraging international investment to create processing plants in Namibia that will support long-term economic planning, empower local enterprises and establish value chains.

Furthermore, in the absence of robust business-friendly policies, Namibia will continue to import while exporting wealth, as enterprises close and investors leave. Namibia is capable of making the decision. Because industrial plans are regularly abandoned or modified due to differences in citizen and government preferences, short-term policy cycles should be avoided. Namibia would thrive as an industrialised country if regulatory stability and policy continuity were maintained, allowing enterprises to invest in production without fear of unexpected setbacks.

Policymakers need to understand that industrialisation is a multigenerational process. It advocates consistent policies, independent oversight bodies, and legal frameworks that provide long-term stability. Without this, investors will avoid Namibian manufacturing and instead emphasise short-term extractive sectors over long-term industrial strategy. Namibia, with a population of more than three million people, must be more strategic in its interactions with investors, involving Namibians with a richness of economic and entrepreneurial skills, as well as a nation at heart. It is not about being weak in negotiations, but about attracting FDI, building manufacturing, creating value- addition, creating jobs, developing local skills, creating investment opportunities for small and medium-sized businesses, technological innovation, alleviating poverty, ensuring food security, and diversifying the local economy to make it more competitive.

The country must keep in mind that in order to draw foreign direct investment (FDI), certain of its regulations must be sacrificed or loosened in order to provide investors with competitive policies. Consistent policies aiming at luring both domestic and foreign direct investment and establishing connections between the latter and private companies must be implemented in tandem with efforts to harness global trade. The country must successfully implement supportive policies to create a thriving private sector as a driver of structural transformation, and measures that are hospitable to investors in order to accommodate them, benefit the local community and achieve economic independence. Namibia’s competition with other nations necessitates trade policies that are both competitive and beneficial to the local and global economy. Investor-unfriendly policies, such as excessive bureaucratic tendencies, limit and deter potential investment. Complaining about poverty while sitting on riches is ludicrous, but Namibia should promote joint ventures and private-public partnerships to address Namibia’s development challenges.

Therefore, Namibia’s strategy is driven by Vision 2030, which specifies the activities that must be performed to accomplish the goal of being a developed country by 2030. This vision can only be fulfilled by cultivating strategic alliances that encourage investment, innovation and collaboration. Investors from across the world are encouraged to join Namibia in order to unleash the enormous potential in all of the many industries. This would help Namibia, which is now rated 96th out of 181 nations in the 2025 United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNC-TAD), improve.

Moreover, policies must be designed to make conducting business in Namibia easier. However, as Namibia navigates the intricacies of international economic interactions, it becomes crucial to comprehend the subtleties of foreign investment law in order to maximise benefits and minimise dangers. The Namibian economy can only achieve its goals through a cooperative, win-win strategy involving all parties involved: government, businesses and local communities. This is because the government is responsible for ensuring that there are adequate regulatory and enforcement frameworks in place to ensure that businesses operate in an environmentally-responsible manner, and that the laws are appropriately enforced in the event of non-compliance. To encourage the growth of local economies and to improve strategic local ownership and economic maximisation, the majority of resource-rich nations have responded by enacting resource-nationalist legislative frameworks.

Supporting local employment and a competitive and sustainable local industry requires actions from the business sector that go well beyond the corporate social responsibility agenda. This necessitates cooperation across the sector, and participation from multiple stakeholders. Private sector initiatives, however, must be grounded in the government’s general local content policies. The dearth of a clear strategy and regulatory framework eventually impedes local content development. As a result, the emphasis on achieving these goals is on a win-win approach with investors to enable local transformation of competitive raw materials through industrialisation and value chain development support in high-growth sectors. 

Namibia should develop conditions to attract capital and skills in high-growth sector value chains, and the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA) should help to build markets for these products. This also goes hand in hand with ensuring that there are policies that address the issue of skills upgrades for the targeted population in order for them to access these professions.

To that end, policies are being implemented to encourage FDI while also supporting the development of private sector-led growth, which leads to structural transformation and the creation of quality jobs, particularly for women and young people.