Namibia’s Green Hydrogen Programme is developing a Sectoral Transformation Investment Plan that could raise up to US$1 billion for green industrial projects, according to Head of the Green Hydrogen Programme, James Mnyupe.
The plan forms part of the Climate Investment Funds (CIF) Industry Decarbonisation Programme, which supports early-stage, high-risk technologies aimed at cutting emissions in heavy industry. Namibia is one of only seven countries globally invited to take part.
“We would hope to be able to put together a case to mobilise potentially up to US$250 million from the CIF,” Mnyupe said.
He noted that this would be combined with capital from the International Finance Corporation, the African Development Bank, and “institutional investors from around the world, high-net-worth individuals, and the likes.”
Mnyupe said discussions are already underway with global asset manager Ninety One, which has offered to act as a strategic partner in the fund.
“If possible, we would like to build a billion-dollar fund, which we would then like to invest into these novel Namibian concepts, which are difficult, and that is why this fit-for-purpose capital is designed to help them survive,” he said.
Mnyupe explained that the fund would not be limited to hydrogen technologies but would also support a wider range of green innovations aligned with CIF’s decarbonisation criteria.
He added that the initiative may include a private credit facility to deploy concessional capital and attract traditional commercial investment.
He confirmed that formal work on the investment plan will begin during a CIF-hosted workshop in Cartagena, Colombia, in September 2025.
“We are invited to go to Colombia between the 10th and the 12th of September, Cartagena to be exact, by CIF to start putting together this particular sectoral transformation investment plan and, again, to confirm that Ninety One have offered to be our strategic partner,” he said.
Mnyupe emphasised that CIF funding is offered on highly favourable terms: “That capital will have to be blended with capital from multilateral development banks and then of course, when you crowd in the institutional investors and high net worth individuals, it should give you a weighted average cost of capital which should be more attractive than conventional funding.”
According to Mnyupe, CIF offers loans with tenors of up to 20 years, grace periods of up to eight years, and an average cost of capital of just 1.1%.
A national call for proposals is expected in the coming weeks.
“Namibian-based or Namibian-led projects” will be invited to submit expressions of interest, with initial capital mobilisation planned for the first quarter of 2026. All projects will be assessed against CIF’s publicly available decarbonisation standards.
“This particular fund is meant to be catalytic in that it is meant to de-risk the prospect of investing in these novel technologies so that we can crowd in other more traditional funding from our banks, from our pension funds and the like,” Mnyupe said.
