The President of Namibia, Netumbo Nandi-Ndaitwah, made a working visit on Monday, May 19, to the Maputo Thermal Power Plant (CTM), located in the Mozambican capital in the south of the country. The visit was part of a joint effort to revitalize and strengthen cooperation between Mozambique and Namibia, especially in the energy sector.
During her visit, the Namibian head of state was accompanied by Mozambique’s Minister of Mineral Resources and Energy, Estevão Rafael Pale, with the main objective of learning about the investments Mozambique has made in energy production and exploring possibilities for technical and economic cooperation between the two countries.
“Our region is facing one of its biggest challenges: energy scarcity. The investment we have seen here in Mozambique is indeed an effort on behalf of the Southern African Development Community (SADC),” Nandi-Ndaitwah stated. According to the President, it is essential that countries in the region accelerate projects like the CTM if they want to achieve the industrialization proposed in the SADC strategic plan. The Namibian leader also expressed her desire to see similar initiatives implemented in her own country.
“What I saw here is a clear example of investment in energy. And I would very much like to see that in Namibia as well,” she emphasized, adding that her government is investing in a diversified energy portfolio, including renewable, conventional, and even nuclear sources.
For his part, Estevão Rafael Pale highlighted the strategic nature of the event, explaining: “The two countries want to reactivate cooperation. As you know, they have been friends for a long time and this is a visit to strengthen the relations of friendship and cooperation and, above all, to look for partnership alternatives in various fields, especially in the area of energy.”
According to the minister, Namibia has been discovering new energy resources, such as oil, and is now seeking ways to make the best use of these resources for the benefit of its economy. In this context, Mozambique has established itself as a regional reference in terms of natural resource exploitation and energy production.
President Nandi-Ndaitwah also emphasized the importance of collaboration between the public and private sectors to ensure the success of energy projects in the region, aligned with the African Union’s Agenda 2063: “Since governments will not be able to do this alone, we appeal to the private sector to join forces. We are inviting our entrepreneurs to form joint ventures with Mozambicans to realize the dream of a developed Africa,” she said.
To conclude, the Namibian leader thanked the government for its commitment to regional development. “Politically, we are doing very well, but we need to improve our economic cooperation. We have instructed our foreign affairs ministers to ensure that the Joint Cooperation Commission — covering sectors such as energy, mining, agriculture, tourism, and youth — between Namibia and Mozambique is inaugurated very soon,” she concluded.
Source: Diário Económico
