Namibia misses Global Gateway Forum
Namibia signed a memorandum of agreement with the EU Commission to establish an EU-Namibia Strategic Partnership in 2022.
Under this MoU, the EU has made available N$26 billion in loans and grants for the implementation of different infrastructure, studies and strategic partnership programmes.
Although the MoU has no expiry date, the EU Embassy in Windhoek says there is a roadmap agreed upon to support the implementation of the partnership with activities planned for 2023-2025.
According to the EU Embassy in Windhoek, given the relevance of the activities under the roadmap, an extension is currently under discussion.
During this year’s Global Gateway Forum in Brussels, Namibia did not feature prominently as it did in 2022, when the late President Hage Geingob led a huge delegation for the EU-Namibia Business Forum.
EU Ambassador to Namibia Ana Batriz Martins said President Netumbo Nandi-Ndaitwah was invited to attend the 2025 Global Gateway Forum during the recent visit of the EU Commissioner for International Partnerships, Jozef Sikela, to Namibia.
“She indicated her interest but delegated the Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Industries, Mines and Energy Hon. [Natague] Ithete. As he was not able to participate, Namibia was represented at the Forum by MIME Executive Director Moses Pakote,” Beatriz Martins said.
Namibia’s peers — Angola, the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), Zambia and South Africa — had high-level representation in Brussels, where they all secured major investment packages.
A tale of diverging trajectories
In 2022, Angola received about €150 million under the Global Gateway’s Africa–Europe Investment Package, focused on preparatory studies and logistics planning for the Lobito Corridor.
By 2025, that cooperation had matured into €133.5 million in implementation-phase funding, including €76.5 million announced in January for infrastructure and trade facilitation and €57 million in October for agriculture and vocational training.
In total, Angola’s Global Gateway commitments now stand at roughly €283.5 million.
The DRC followed a similar pattern, progressing from about €200 million in 2022 to more than €180 million in 2025, directed toward the Kivu–Kinshasa Green Corridor, electrification projects and sustainable mining governance — a combined €380 million since 2022.
South Africa, meanwhile, vaulted ahead: in March 2025, Brussels unveiled a €4.7 billion Global Gateway package to support its Just Energy Transition, digital connectivity and vaccine manufacturing.
Together, these developments cemented Angola, the DRC and South Africa as core pillars of the EU’s Africa portfolio — while Namibia, once the symbolic face of Europe’s green-hydrogen hopes, receded into silence.
Nothing for Namibia this round
Beatriz Martins said Namibia’s 2022 MoU with the EU was a roadmap, not specifically on projects, of which several were indeed identified under six pillars.
She said the six pillars included value chain integration and business facilitation; ESG cooperation and mobilisation of funding; capacity building, training, and skilled development; cooperation on research; and development and regulatory development.
“Targeted projects are at various stages of maturity and development,” she said.
In November 2023, the European Investment Bank announced a €500 million financing window to support Namibia’s green-hydrogen value chain.
The fund was designed to provide loans, guarantees and technical assistance for renewable generation, desalination and hydrogen infrastructure. Yet by mid-2025, only €50 million had been allocated to feasibility work for Hyphen Hydrogen Energy and Cleanergy Solutions Namibia.
The EIB’s 2024 annual report still lists Namibia’s hydrogen sector as “pipeline.”
Another project, the EU–Namibia Vocational Skills and Green Jobs Initiative, launched in March 2024 with €25 million, supports technical training and employment in renewable-energy sectors.
It is jointly funded by the EU Commission (€15 million) and Germany’s GIZ (€10 million) and implemented through the Namibia Training Authority and NUST’s Hydrogen Campus in Walvis Bay.
The EU also financed a €7 million feasibility study for the Port of Walvis Bay in 2023, assessing berthing, storage and ammonia-export readiness. Its findings, published in 2024, guided Walvis Bay’s designation as a hydrogen-export node.
In addition, a €20 million Renewable-Energy and Grid Integration Programme, jointly run by the EU–Africa Infrastructure Trust Fund and Germany’s KfW, is to improve NamPower’s solar-battery and grid-stabilisation capacity between 2023 and 2025.
These projects amount to roughly €552 million in identifiable commitments associated with Global Gateway or Team Europe funding.
However, the majority remains either preparatory or in early rollout, with no consolidated investment package comparable to those of Angola or the DRC.
A missed Brussels moment
The way forward
Policy analysts say the next six months are decisive.
Namibia can still revive its partnership by renewing the 2022 MoU, appointing a new Green Hydrogen Commissioner, and fast-tracking feasibility projects to the bankable stage.
EU Commission officials have confirmed that a second Global Gateway review mission is planned for early 2026; if Namibia demonstrates progress by then, it could regain access to unallocated Team Europe funds.
Equally crucial will be rebuilding investor confidence after several setbacks — including the postponed HyRail project between TransNamib and Cleanergy Solutions, originally scheduled to launch in April 2024 and now indefinitely delayed. That initiative, meant to be Namibia’s first hydrogen-powered rail demonstration, was handed to Cleanergy but never reached the commissioning stage.
Namibia remains part of the Global Gateway framework, but without a renewed agreement or new headline funding, it faces challenges.
Its peers have turned early pilot projects into multi-billion-euro partnerships; Namibia’s progress, by contrast, has been slowed by institutional drift.
Yet the opportunity still exists.
The EU continues to view Namibia as a crucial node in its sustainable raw materials and green hydrogen strategy. Re-engagement — with clear leadership, technical preparation and political follow-through — could still restore Namibia’s place at the centre of Europe’s green-industrialisation map.
