Finance Minister Iipumbu Shiimi reiterated at yesterday’s 39th National Covid-19 Briefing that the economic recovery lies in the Harambee Prosperity Plan (HPP) II.

“Namibia’s stimulus package resides in HPPII, as one of the stated objectives is to find new engines of growth in the economy. Green hydrogen is one of the new growth avenues that Namibia is trying to pursue. This will not only contribute to the recovery, but also to the diversification of what we already produce,” he said.

Shiimi noted that the lesson learned from the pandemic is that the countries that have managed to diversify and reach a significant level are those that have targeted new areas of growth, and he believes that green hydrogen will be the new energy of the future of Namibia.

Namibia’s economic performance is expected to improve in 2022, following the sharpest contraction in the country’s history recorded in 2020.

According to the Bank of Namibia’s December 2021 Economic Outlook Update, real gross domestic product (GDP) growth is expected to decline to 3.3% in 2022, following a sharp contraction of 8.5% in 2020. improvements are mainly due to the forecasts included in the primary and tertiary industries.

Additionally, Shiimi said the measures in place to control the pandemic as outlined by the government are also part of the plans to promote economic recovery.

“If we have Covid-19, it means that the mobility of people will be limited, the productive capacity of the economy will be limited and, therefore, we will not be able to recover”, explained the Minister of Finance.

Shiimi added that President Hage Geingob has also instructed his cabinet to develop a diversification strategy, which was launched last year, with the aim of reviving the national economy.

Last year, the Minister of Finance said when presenting the strategy that Namibia was at a desperate time in its economic development for the introduction of a diversification strategy, as the country cannot count on indefinitely on its natural resources and the volatility of commodity prices for its growth.

Under this strategy, Namibia has identified 97 commodities in which the country can venture. The government is therefore now working with domestic and foreign direct investors to indicate areas where Namibia has potential.

“There is a need for coordination between the private sector and government to promote larger scale investment in potential areas. We have already started piloting in December 2021 with a working group on productivity, which is essentially a dialogue between the private sector and investors operating in a particular sector. In this case, we started with high-value food products like grapes,” he said.

The task force, Shiimi said, will help better coordination between the private sector and the government to move in the same direction of diversification, growth and job creation.

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