The oil contracts are coming. The question is whether Namibian businesses will be ready to answer when the phone rings.
Last week I introduced an analogy: a neighbour walking into your kitchen to bake a cake. Local content is the set of rules that ensures you are not just watching, but that you get to supply the flour, work the oven, and eventually learn the recipe yourself.
Now the cake is nearly in the oven and many of us still haven’t found the ingredients.
TotalEnergies, one of the most significant players in Namibia’s Orange Basin, is expected to make its final investment decision (FID) before 2026 ends. Think of an FID as the moment you sign the contract for your dream home; it is where billions of dollars are committed and construction begins, once it is signed, procurement begins. Contracts go out.
Supply chains are built. The question small and medium enterprise (SME) need to ask themselves right now is whether they will be ready when the call comes.
The oil and gas sector needs three broad categories of input from local businesses. It needs raw materials, food, water, safety gear and construction supplies for onshore camps and support bases.
It needs infrastructure services, logistics, transport, warehousing, port support, technical expertise, engineering, environmental assessments, legal services, catering, security, and information technology. There is opportunity at every level.
The problem is that most Namibian SMEs are not yet positioned to compete for it.
I attended the Petrofund Upstream Oil and Gas Local Suppliers Workshop in Windhoek recently and I want to share what I heard in that room. The three barriers that came up most consistently were access to finance, certification gaps and the absence of formal business systems.
On finance: oil and gas contracts are large and come with long payment cycles. Most SMEs do not have the balance sheet to absorb that kind of upfront risk, and traditional lenders have historically been cautious about sectors they do not understand well.
On certification: ISO 9001, the international quality management standard, is increasingly treated as a baseline requirement by operators, not a bonus. If you do not have it, your bid may not be considered. On business systems: operators require documented processes, audited financials and formal health, safety and environment policies before awarding contracts.
Many capable Namibian businesses simply do not have these on paper.
The good news is that none of these barriers are insurmountable. Start with ISO 9001, contact the Namibia Standards Institution, which runs the certification pathway locally.
Register your business on vendor databases: TotalEnergies operates a global supplier portal and the National Petroleum Corporation of Namibia accepts supplier registrations online. Begin the financing conversation now, before you have a contract in hand, the Development Bank of Namibia and Petrofund both have instruments designed for businesses entering the energy value chain.
The cake is in the oven and contracts will be awarded with or without us. But the readiness gap is closable, if we are honest about where we stand and deliberate about what we do next. Stop watching. Start baking.
- Mutindi Jacobs is an oil and gas lawyer. Through her Energy Explainer Series, she aims to simplify Namibia’s oil and gas sector for people to understand, engage, and benefit from it. Follow her Newsletter on LinkedIn.
