Green hydrogen programme to launch N$25-million scholarships

The Green Hydrogen Programme (NGH2P) will be launching another round of scholarship opportunities worth N$25 million in July.

This is part of the need to address the lack of skills and capacity needed for the hydrogen sector.

To date, 183 scholarships have been awarded to Namibian youth in fields aligned with green industrialisation, comprising 90 technical and vocational education and training-level and 93 tertiary-level scholarships.

Green Hydrogen Programme commissioner James Mnyupe says the new scholarship programme will target young people in the Hardap and //Kharas regions.

“An additional 1.3 million euros has been allocated to capacity-building initiatives in the Hardap and //Kharas regions, where a project like Hyphen Hydrogen Energy is anticipated.

This new scholarship programme will be officially launched in early July,” says Mnyupe.

To date, the green hydrogen industry has employed 800 people.

This is a big shortfall from the 250 000 jobs the industry is expected to create according to the Green Industrialisation Blueprint.

This includes about 185 000 direct jobs from green hydrogen activities, like building wind and solar farms, operating pipelines, and assembling electrolysers, and around 70 000 jobs related to concrete manufacturing, basic metals production, and outsourced business services.

“Over 800 Namibians have been employed across pilot and early-stage initiatives, and close to N$170 million has been channelled to local small and medium enterprises, demonstrating early traction in value chain localisation and inclusive growth,” says Mnyupe.

He adds that by the first quarter of 2025, Namibia’s green hydrogen sector had N$2.08 billion committed across various projects from investments.

Additionally, the NGH2P has completed three pre-feasibility studies on long-term green industrialisation goals at a cost of N$2.5 million.

One of the studies was conducted for the Neckartal Dam Fertiliser Green Scheme, which confirmed that establishing an ammonia and fertiliser production facility near the dam is feasible.

Another study was on the Gigawatt-Scale Green Hydrogen Project which identified viable sites outside the Tsau //Khaeb National Park suitable for the development of large-scale green hydrogen and derivative production.

“These sites have strong potential to support anchor industries such as green steel, lithium beneficiation, agriculture, and the export of green electricity via the Southern African Power Pool, targeting local, regional and international markets,” says Mnyupe.

Lastly, a feasibility study was conducted on Offshore Wind.

Mnyupe says the study recommends a pilot turbine project to build local technical expertise and initiate structured knowledge transfer for this emerging technology.

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