The Ministry of Industries, Mines and Energy will focus on nurturing local content and building local capacity in the mineral value-addition, mining and green industries during the implementation of its new strategic plan.
This was said by mines and energy minister Modestus Amutse when presenting the ministry’s strategic plan for the period 2025/26 to 2029/30 last week.
This plan aims to steer the ministry in the direction it plans to be by 2030.
It considers the key critical factors, both internal and external, that have a bearing on the ministry’s ability to fulfil its mandate, vision and refocus its programmes to attain the requisite national development goals of the country.
“We seek to reposition the ministry as a dynamic driver of industrialisation, ensuring that our foundation is reinforced to be impactful and aligned with the developmental aspirations of our people,” he said, adding that the plan will assist the ministry in planning ahead and enhancing its operations to effectively and efficiently respond to challenges that prevent it from fully executing its mandate.
Amutse said the strategic plan seeks to support exploration, ensure optimal use of Namibia’s natural resources through sustainable mining practices and foster industrial development and value addition.
“It also articulates our efforts in ensuring energy security and access, promoting renewable energy sources, ensuring responsible development of our resources and fostering a conducive environment for investment to support economic growth and employment creation.”
Amutse said providing support to micro, small and medium enterprises, and industrial development through the industrial upgrading and modernisation programme, remains one of the key components of this strategy.
According to the ministry’s executive director, Moses Pakote, the strategic plan was formulated through a participatory process which entailed several consultation workshops with diverse stakeholders.
“This provided a mosaic of views that led to a deeper understanding of the issues involved and their proposed strategic solutions,” he said, adding that it is a shared statement on the way forward and the vision that the ministry must achieve within the execution period.
In the course of executing the strategic plan, the ministry seeks to uphold the values of integrity, agility, innovation, transparency, collaboration and inclusivity.
Five strategic pillars and nine strategic objectives were formulated to address the ministry’s strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats.
The infrastructure development pillar is to accelerate investment in infrastructure development, while manufacturing and value addition is to enhance enterprise productivity, competitiveness and sustainability, as well as to enhance industrial production capacity and promoting value addition.
The geoscience and natural resources development pillar seeks to strengthen surveying and research to stimulate investment in the sector as well as empower Namibians to participate in the mining industry.
The energy sustainability pillar advances the development of low-carbon energy solutions and ensures sustainable access to energy, while the good governance and operational excellence pillar seeks to review, amend and develop applicable sectoral policies and legislative frameworks and enhance organisational performance.
In the previous strategic plan covering the periods between 2016/17 and 2022/23 and the extension period 2023/24 and 2024/25, the ministry successfully conducted 11 research projects on diverse topics to provide valuable geoscientific insights.”Additionally, the ministry implemented the national oil and gas production preparedness plan, covering the entire lifecycle from discovery to first oil, which was approved and implemented.
“The ministry successfully upgraded the Landfolio and e-Gov portals staging and production environments,” outlines the strategic plan.
The ministry also maintained full operation of 10 sight holders, employing 1 100 Namibians full-time.
It recorded significant investment of N$70 million in infrastructure and machinery in 2023/24, and expansion by three existing sight holders with new factories in 2024, and continued growth of SPD holders.
Additionally, the ministry completed six value-addition projects, and successfully developed the petroleum importation coordination system.
Its implementation has begun.
– email: matthew@namibian.com.na
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