Prime Minister Elijah Ngurare has called for greater inclusion of women and enhanced skills development in Namibia’s emerging green hydrogen sector and broader green industrialisation efforts.
The remarks were delivered on his behalf by Moses Pakote, Executive Director in the Office of the Prime Minister, during the Women in Green Hydrogen (WiGH) Namibia event held this week.
Ngurare underscored the importance of inclusive participation in the country’s green transition, emphasising the need to empower women through training, education, and access to economic opportunities.
“There will be many opportunities ensuing from green industrialisation, and the best way for women to benefit from such opportunities will be through skills upgrading, training and education, financing, inclusive procurement, and as part of affirmative economic empowerment and exploring strategies to connect and empower our Namibian women,” he said.
The Prime Minister also urged that women’s empowerment should not be confined solely to the green hydrogen sector.
“Such empowerment and mainstreaming of Namibian women into business should not only be limited to green hydrogen but should be extended to new industries such as oil and gas, as well as existing ones, including agriculture, tourism, commerce, infrastructure, information technology, and many others,” he added.
Speaking at the same event, WiGH Namibia Country Lead Iyaloo Akuaake highlighted the need for updated gender participation data in the sector.
“Currently, based on the data that I provided on one of my slides, it showed that 35% of women participated in the industry. But that’s based on 2019 data, so we’re going to look at and see if there’s an opportunity for us to revisit these statistics and probably see if there’s an opportunity to do a study and to see what the statistics are currently,” Akuaake said.
She noted that while the oil and gas and green hydrogen sectors appeal to different skill sets and interests, both are important to Namibia’s development.
“I think there’s a varying interest based on the oil and gas industry versus the green hydrogen industry. I think we need to take into consideration that the green industry is there to contribute towards the Sustainable Development Goals, especially when we’re looking at energy transition. Oil and gas are not necessarily green. So, it’s really people in two different industries and the skills are so diverse, but one can work in either one of the two fields,” she said.
Akuaake further pointed out that financing opportunities differ between the two sectors, with green hydrogen projects more likely to attract sustainable investment due to environmental, social, and governance (ESG) factors.
“Some investors don’t want to fund oil and gas because it’s not considered clean. And a lot of money is going towards clean energy sources such as the green hydrogen industry because of investors’ responsibility towards ESG and so forth. So it just depends, but I don’t think there’s going to be a challenge in the type of money that’s flowing,” she said.
The WiGH Namibia platform aims to drive gender equity within the rapidly growing green energy space, ensuring that women are not left behind in Namibia’s transition to a low-carbon economy.
