President Hage Geingob says Namibia aims to mobilise N$22.7 billion this year through public-private collaboration and targeted economic diplomacy, to address sustainable development goals and climate change.
The N$22.7-billion target, Geingob said, can be achieved through various innovative financial tools such as green bonds, sustainability bonds, grants and official development assistance.
“Our efforts to support domestic resource mobilisation have also been central to complementing the efforts of our partners to meet our development needs. Namibia will continue in its endeavours to scale up domestic resources as a means for financing our developmental agenda,” the President said.
He added that Namibia has identified unique opportunities that would address various sustainable development goals and climate change, including renewable energy, green hydrogen, the cultivation of carbon sequestering underwater kelp, sustainable water management and clean synthetic fuels production.
Geingob made these remarks at the 78th Session of the United Nations General Assembly in New York while reflecting on the Sustainable Development Summit of High-Level Dialogue on Mobilising Finance and Investments; and the Means of Implementation for SDG Achievement.
The President also used the platform to appeal to international financing institutions such as the World Bank to augment their risk appetite by reviewing their capital adequacy ratios, to unlock more capital for lending to both lower and middle-income countries.
“The call for the reform of the international financial architecture is to broaden opportunities to support development. Sustainable and predictable financing is the bedrock for all our development priorities and only when this is prioritised, can we put back on track our collective developmental ambitions,” he said.
In the same vein, Geingob bemoaned Namibia’s classification as an upper middle-income country because of its high GDP per capita though with a small population, as an unfair rating.
“Taking the small population of Namibia, dividing its GDP and arriving at a per capita income that is high is not a good measurement. It does not reflect the reality of the past colonial injustices in Namibia where the white minority oppressed the black majority.”
“Therefore, the odds have been stacked against our small nation. However, we have always refused to consider ourselves helpless victims of these unparalleled hurdles. We have acted decisively by utilising policies, which we crafted such as the 2019 Development Finance Assessment Report, which advocates for the utilisation of an Integrated National Financing Framework to mobilise fit for purpose capital,” Geingob said.
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