Three mining captains said the quickest, broadest wins are coming from local procurement, supplier finance, skills transfer, and practical partnerships that put money and capability in Namibian hands today.
The three – B2Gold country manager John Roos, Swakop Uranium senior vice president Irvinee Simataa, and Navachab Gold Mine managing director George Botshiwe – were responding to the question about the 51% local shareholding and their thoughts on it.
At the Mining Expo panel Driving Local Empowerment Through Procurement and Economic Inclusion, the conversation shifted from abstract equity debates to the nuts and bolts of contracts, cash flow and capacity. George Botshiwe’s case was straightforward: ownership structures take years to yield dividends, but procurement changes livelihoods immediately.
Across the sector, between 60% and 80% of spend already goes to Namibian suppliers—roughly 45% of total industry revenue flowing onshore.
Irvinee Simataa supplied the scale. Of the industry’s ~N$23 billion in local spend, Swakop Uranium alone accounts for about N$7 billion (≈27%)—more than N$2 billion with public entities and over N$5 billion with local suppliers.
Because the bottleneck is often capital rather than competence, Swakop uses cascading thresholds to onboard Namibian vendors—from first-time SMEs to technically solid mid-tier firms that lack balance-sheet heft.
The demand sits exactly where domestic capacity is thinnest: 61% of Swakop’s approximately N$5 billion local outlay is in mining services, contracting, and parts, the heartland for credible medium-to-large local contractors.
Where commercial lenders hesitate, mines are closing the gap.
At Navachab, a group of retrenched workers was unable to raise start-up capital for a contracting business; the mine financed the equipment and awarded the work to them. That contract now generates approximately N$120 million per year, with banks finally following suit.
Coda Drilling secured a five-year contract and a bank guarantee from the mine, financed the acquisition of four new rigs, and scaled its annual drilling revenue beyond N$200 million.
On the micro level, a Swakop Uranium employee transitioned from being a cleaner to running an on-site car wash, which generated N$3 million annually after the company invested in equipment and issued a services contract.
The pattern is deliberate: anchor a Namibian operator with a bankable mandate, de-risk the first assets, then crowd in finance.
Standards and substance matter too.
John Roos stated that B2Gold adheres to the World Gold Council’s rules on local content and human rights, and its 58–62% local spend only counts genuine Namibian companies—not foreign firms with token desks.
The company links procurement to shared-value CSI initiatives.
For example, TotalEnergies contributes N$0.02 per litre of fuel supplied to the Namibia Chamber of Environment, and B2Gold now operates one of the country’s most significant private-sector maize projects to bolster food security.
Partnerships thread through the approach. Swakop Uranium turns collaboration with Unam into paid exploration contracts, building local technical expertise while delivering tangible results.
Joint programmes with the FAO are helping communities transition from handouts to income-generating agriculture, providing starter stock, inputs, and practical support.
And on the national level, everyone feels the impact of water—the industry is engaging in desalination solutions designed to serve both mines and communities in Erongo.
What’s still in the way is no mystery: financing costs that leave local bids uncompetitive; policy friction that slows SME onboarding and begs for targeted tax incentives; thin local manufacturing for basics like PPE; the need for continuous training tied to live contracts; and late payments from corporates or government that can cripple SMEs before they scale.
Partnerships weren’t window dressing; they were working capital for impact.
“TotalEnergies contributes N$0.02 per litre of fuel supplied to the Namibia Chamber of Environment, and B2Gold runs one of the country’s most significant private-sector maize projects to bolster food security,” said Roos.
On the capability side, Simataa explained how Swakop Uranium turns collaboration with Unam into paid exploration contracts, deliberately building local technical depth through honest work.
The same logic guides livelihoods: “Through joint programmes with the FAO, we’re shifting communities from handouts to income-generating agriculture—starter stock, inputs, practical support,” Simataa added.
And at the systems level, he said, the industry is engaging on desalination solutions designed to serve both mines and communities in Erongo.
Then came the blockages—each with an owner. Financing costs that leave local bids uncompetitive, said George Botshiwe and Irvinee Simataa.
Policy friction that slows SME onboarding and calls for targeted tax incentives, said John Roos.
There is too little local manufacturing for basics like PPE, said Botshiwe.
The panel agreed on the need for continuous training tied to live contracts. And the cash-flow killer everyone knows: late payments by corporates or government, flagged from the floor and endorsed by the panel.
