Industrialisation and Trade Minister, Lucia Iipumbu has defended Hyphen Hydrogen as the preferred bidder of Namibia’s N$190 billion EU-backed green hydrogen deal amid criticism of the tender process and of Hyphen’s CEO.
Further, the financial structure of the deal, through tax havens, has raised concerns over Namibia’s ability to levy taxes on profits.
“Wherever you go and whatever you do, other people will always have their opinions about you and about what you do. But what matters is for you to focus on what you believe is delivering for your country. Whether it’s Hyphen or any other company we would have chosen to hold our hand in evolving this very critical sector, there were always going to be comments. If you choose to focus on the personalities of who is leading the various initiatives, you will miss the point. The ball will be moving in the other direction while you are scrutinising the personalities and their histories. I believe in the present and whether the deal we can strike will be workable.
“So far, I have not come across challenges that indicate our choice of Hyphen was a misfortune. The commencement of feasibility studies and all the activities they have done thus far do not leave me with question marks. For each and every relationship that you build, especially the business relationships, there will be those that will be taking joy in them and there will always be those that will criticise them,” Iipumbu said in an interview with African Arguments.
Speaking about the industry skills gap, the Minister highlighted that Namibia training institution were making concerted effort to address these gaps amid a growing green hydrogen industry.
“At independence in 1990, if there is one thing that Namibia looked at and realised we had to address it was a deficiency in skills. What were technical institutes and colleges of education got transformed into the University of Namibia. Now we also have the University of Science and Technology and the International University of Management as well private institutions coming on board to complement the efforts of government.
“As we are evolving, we are looking at the technical practicality of our skills gap. We are talking about green hydrogen in the ammonia sector and oil and gas. To my knowledge, we do not have the skills in these sectors yet, but our existing institutions have already introduced programmes that are developing skills in this specific evolving field. We already have trainees in our various local institutions and some are also sent abroad to capacitate themselves in those industries. On infrastructure, we expanded our port 6-7 years ago that increased the container terminal to three times its size. We have developed various development corridors. We are revamping our main international airport. Namibia is well known in southern Africa to be the one with the best roads,” she said.
Iipumbu also addressed criticisms that green hydrogen will not transform but replicate colonial dynamics of Namibia’s resources primarily benefiting the Global North, while electricity access in the country itself is just 45%.
“All of us have started from somewhere. We currently import half our electricity from neighbouring countries and any effort to enhance local energy generation is a commendable effort. Namibia’s approach to energy generation is not focusing only on green hydrogen. Solar energy could even be the one to come first, but then you look the blessing of the strip we have with abundant sun and proximity to the ocean, where you can have these gases developed onshore and then other initiatives offshore. These are initiatives – along with biomass and various other sources of energy – that would complement the general energy generation that would supplement what we get from the grid. Green hydrogen in Europe perhaps is something that you have had for quite a number of years but it’s now complementing the various other energy sources. All the aspects of energy generation are speaking to each other, and we are able to generate enough consumption and perhaps even surpass the requirements,” she explained.
Equally, the minister also noted addressed concerns that the green hydrogen development will threaten areas of high biodiversity, potentially exacerbating the biodiversity crisis as well as undermining fishing and tourism activities.
“If we were going to listen to the environmental pressure groups, if I may call them as such, we would not have food to eat or commodities to trade with or exchange of goods and services between countries. In every sector of our economy, the environmentalists embrace their concerns. They have a role to play, but we must put everything on the scale and balance the equation in making sure that we do not concentrate on environmental impacts without focusing on energy deficiency. It’s one thing to worry about the environment. It’s another thing to not be able to sustain your industries because of energy deficiency,” she said.