By Kondjeni Ndakeva
“A people united, striving to achieve a common good for all the members of the society, will always emerge victorious.” – His Excellency the Founding Father Dr. Samuel Shafiishuna Daniel Nujoma.
With technological advancement, the tech industry finds new ways of improving lives, and the recent and advancing technology is artificial intelligence (AI). For a few years now, AI has become a part of our everyday life, primarily online, and this technology keeps getting better each day and making our lives easier as days go by.
In principle, when we speak of Artificial Intelligence, we quickly think about online chatbots like ChatGPT, xAi (Grok), DeepSeek, etc. On the other hand, AI is being used to transform industries far beyond simple conversations and reforming healthcare, agriculture, education, and even urban planning.
According to the International Monetary Fund’s (IMF) AI Preparedness Index (AIPI) report of 2023, Namibia ranks ninth in Africa with a score of 0.41. The IMF determines the ranking based on Namibia’s government commitment to digital transformation and innovation, with institutions such as the University of Namibia and Namibia University of Science and Technology investing in AI research and development. Considering Namibia’s economy and size, this is a positive achievement.
Like any other country, Namibia can immensely capitalise on AI at the national level to deliver public services and carry out government strategic objectives in the realisation of Vision 2030 to fulfil his excellency Founding Father’s vision of an industrialised and self- sustaining Namibia.
Like many other countries jumping onto the AI wagon, Namibia can immensely benefit from implementing AI-powered systems and applications in some of its key economic sectors.
Sectors to benefit significantly from AI are as follows:
Health Sector: With AI, the Namibian public health sector can use AI for predictive analysis; this would help with decision-making when allocating resources such as human resources, medication, and equipment to different healthcare facilities in regions and constituencies.
The Namibian government can capitalise on AI by predicting disease outbreaks, allowing proper mitigation planning, and supplying the required resources to counter such outbreaks.
Countries like Rwanda have turned to AI to monitor and distribute medication to rural, remote areas using AI-powered drones. Namibia can, in turn, use the same approach to reach out to rural, remote areas where medication distribution has become a tough job.
Education Sector: In the education sector, proper data-driven analysis can assist schools and teachers in creating tailor-made learning materials to improve student’s learning outcomes and reduce the gap in the quality of education. This will help increase the pass rate, especially in the low-performing Namibian Senior Secondary Certificate (NSSC) NSSCO and NSSCAS levels, which have been received with different feelings from the public.
Security Sector: Many countries like China, the USA, and others have implemented AI to counter many security flows, including terrorism, financial crimes, and child pornography. Like many other countries, Namibia could benefit from using AI to make our nation a safe place for everyone. Using AI-enhanced surveillance systems will allow law enforcers to monitor high-risk areas and detect suspicious behaviour in real time.
Cities and towns can use AI in facial recognition systems, predictive policing, and emergency response systems to provide safety and crime control. Security agencies can utilise AI- based data analysis to identify crime patterns, allowing for better resource allocation and preventing potential threats in record time.
Social Welfare: Gender Based Violence (GBV), primarily associated with passion killing in Namibia, is a serious issue, and AI can be used to help report and monitor domestic violence activities. By doing so, relevant organisations can use AI analyses to distribute resources, such as women and child protection officers and social workers, to the most affected areas.
The government, with the help of the Ministry of Gender and Social Welfare, can utilise AI to assist social welfare programs in identifying vulnerable groups of people through predictive analysis. AI virtual assistants and chatbots can also facilitate more effective provision of services by making it easy to apply for social grants, decreasing bureaucratic workloads, and promptly making disbursements.
Revenue Sector: Within the revenue collection industry, using AI-motivated data analysis will assist in detecting tax fraud, tracking economic activities, and enhancing compliance. Chatbots can assist taxpayers with queries, reducing the workload at NamRa offices. Furthermore, AI can modernise the government procurement process, ensuring transparency and efficiency in government spending.
This improvement will streamline the tedious tendering process, primarily impacting critical service delivery. We have mainly seen its effects within the Ministry of Health, where legal challenges in the tendering process have led to shortages of medicine and medical equipment in hospitals and clinics.
Infrastructure and Urban Planning: At some point, the City of Windhoek fantasised about transforming into a smart city. AI can scale such programs. The city revolution began by offering services to its people more effectively.
AI can prevent traffic jams by optimising the timings of traffic lights using live input. AI- based sensors can maintain public infrastructure by detecting potholes and defects early, allowing active maintenance and reducing maintenance costs.
Agriculture Sector: Namibia is known as one of the driest nations in the world, but agriculture remains a key sector of its economy. Using AI-driven systems in agricultural activities will help early detect diseases likely to affect crops and animals and optimise irrigation.
The government can actively use AI to control, monitor, and mitigate the Foot and Mouth Disease (FDM) outbreak, mainly from the country’s northern side. By doing so, the government will promote economic equality and improve the well-being of all Namibian citizens.
Using AI-driven analyses will help farmers increase harvests and improve the quality of livestock. Farmers can use drones with AI capabilities to analyse soil, monitor livestock, and automate farming activities to reduce costs and increase productivity.
Risks Associated with Artificial Intelligence
Although AI is at the centre of innovation and development, some risks are still associated with it, which cannot be overlooked.
Some of the risks are:
The Data gaps in Namibian industries: Namibia has a huge data gap. Most of the data needed in AI applications has yet to be computerised or digested. AI systems might fail to yield valid and accurate results without structured, high-quality data.
Ethical Considerations: We must ensure data security and confidentiality when applying AI in government services. AI research studies must also comply with local and international standards of ethics and laws to deliver transparency, accountability, and protection of citizen rights.
A threat to the labour force: A study on “The Future of Jobs” report of 2025 by the World Economic Forum (WEF) states that artificial intelligence will make 39% of core skills obsolete by 2030. With such information, we cannot deny that AI will replace many careers in the labour force sector. However, as much as AI threatens job security, it can also increase job creation possibilities by maintaining, developing, and supervising AI systems. It should be the government and the private sector’s responsibility to consider the implementation of policies to improve and create new skills for people to be relevant in the evolving job market.
The way forward for Namibia
Namibia needs to capitalise and find ways to adopt AI-driven initiatives to realise maximum benefits while mitigating challenges and risks associated with AI.
Some of the things to take into consideration are as follows:
National AI Task Force: The Ministry of Information, Communication, and Technology must establish a National AI Task Force to manage and facilitate AI work. The task force must benchmark AI best practices to position the government better in terms of AI and delivering services.
Pilot Projects in the Health and Agricultural Sector: The government must start with pilot projects in health and agricultural sectors focusing on Foot and Mouth Disease control in the northern part of the country. We can scale up the projects to adopt AI in other government services.
Digital Infrastructure: The government should work with local internet service providers to expand and improve digital infrastructure in rural areas, prioritising remote areas. Access to the internet is crucial to rolling out and implementing AI-based solutions in healthcare, education, and agriculture.
Industrial Collaboration: The government must partner with local universities, NGOs, and international organisations to help build AI-related skills and knowledge. These joint efforts will intensify AI innovations and enable Namibia to compete in the digital age of fast-changing technology.
In conclusion, AI can transform and improve government project delivery and better public services with the right policies, joint investments, and not overlooking ethical considerations. The time to move is now. AI is here to stay; we must embrace and capitalise on it.
*Kondjeni Ndakeva is a Data Scientist, Software Developer and Database Administrator with a master’s in data science. He is passionate about leveraging data to drive impactful decisions and enhance democratic accountability in Namibia.
