Namibia has achieved remarkable economic growth since gaining independence in 1990. The country’s resource wealth, especially in mineral resources, has helped it become an upper-middle-income country. But the country’s economic success has yet to be translated into widespread prosperity: the youth unemployment rate stands above 40%, and 15.6% of Namibians live below the poverty line.
The Namibian government recognizes that addressing the triple challenge of high youth unemployment, poverty, and inequality requires a strong private sector response underpinned by a sustainable flow of domestic and foreign investment. In 2020, the government created a new body – the Namibia Investment Promotion and Development Board – to spearhead its efforts in this regard. The Board quickly diagnosed a very low conversion rate of investment leads into funded projects as a critical bottleneck.
The Board has identified a pipeline of stalled investment projects that have the potential to create a transformative number of quality jobs for the country. It is working with a Malaysian firm, PEMANDU Associates, to deploy the “big fast results” model developed in Malaysia to unlock these opportunities and deliver on the country’s potential. PEMANDU’s diagnostic study for the Board identified five priority sectors (Tourism; Services; Energy; Agriculture, Forestry and Fishery; and Mining) with over 100 identified pipeline projects that, if delivered, could create over 200,000 permanent jobs.
