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The Namibian government has kicked off a nationwide roadshow to build support for its planned US$10 billion green hydrogen project with Hyphen Hydrogen Energy.

The roadshow began on 22 August and will continue until early November, visiting major towns in all 14 regions of Namibia.

The meetings are being led by Obeth Mbui Kandjoze, director general of the National Planning Commission and chairperson of the Green Hydrogen Council, and are being hosted by each of the regional governors. Hyphen officials will share information about the project and the benefits and opportunities for local communities in terms of employment, procurement and skills development as set out in the recently launched socio-economic development (SED) framework.

It is estimated that the Hyphen project will create up to 15,000 jobs during the construction phase and 3,000 permanent jobs during its operation. The aim is for around 90% of these jobs to be filled by Namibians and of these 20% will be held by young people.

Hyphen is also targeting 30% local procurement for goods, services and materials throughout both the construction and operational phases.

“We’re looking forward to engaging with different stakeholders to explain more about the project and share information about how the SED Framework can benefit Namibians,” said Toni Beukes, head of ESG at Hyphen, “We’re keen to understand more about what our stakeholders would like to know, speak about any concerns they may have and have an open and transparent conversation about the project, our timelines and goals.”

Earlier in August, Hyphen announced it had signed a partnership agreement with Austria's ILF Consulting Engineers to provide project management services and technical expertise for the project. 

The project in Tsau // Khaeb National Park aims to produce 1 million tonnes of green ammonia by 2027, with plans to increase output to 2 million tonnes by 2029. Operating at full scale, Hyphen’s project hopes to produce 350,000 tonnes of green hydrogen annually from 7GW of renewable generation capacity and 3GW of electrolyser capacity.

Namibia-registered Hyphen Hydrogen Energy is a joint venture of UK-based Nicholas Holdings and Germany’s Enertrag.

The government of Namibia will take a 24% equity interest in the project through the SDG Namibia One blended financing infrastructure fund.

At the launch of the SED in mid-August, presidential economic advisor, James Mnyupe said Namibia's hydrogen plans will anchor "the construction of thousands of houses, new roads, port facilities, electricity transmission lines, pipelines, desalination plants, hospitals, amongst many other necessary infrastructure, making use of existing Namibian skill sets and service providers. In addition to this, local SMEs stand to benefit from multibillion-dollar contracts that could provide opportunities to create generational wealth and sustainable businesses."

The towns of Aus and Lüderitz in particular stand to benefit from investment in associated infrastructure to support the Hyphen project.

Top photo: Hyphen