Namibia and South Africa are set to launch transport infrastructure projects worth over $377 million, over the next three years to address current rail and port inadequacies.
This was disclosed by the Namibian Executive Director, Ministry of Finance and Public Enterprises, Titus Ndove while speaking with CNBC Africa.
He said that his office was preparing an initial R2 billion, for the project which aims to link the two nations and other parts of South Africa, according to nairametrics.
He said, “We are elevating our bi-national arrangements with the government and we have identified, different areas of collaborations ranging from tourism, border protection, water issues, trade facilities and seeking ways to go hunt together for more markets.”
South African economy barely escaped a recession last year due to transport inadequacies and a severe shortage of power supply.
Last year, these challenges severely constrained South Africa’s economy and almost caused a recession.
In order to increase efficiency of its ports and railway network, the Government of SA has reached out to the public sector.
Ndove told delegates at the second annual Ninety-one Infrastructure Forum that, South Africa needs to invest in key infrastructure, if it is to solve its logistical and port problems.
“Most of our goods- about 70% of them coming from South Africa- move on the road and that has complications in the form of high maintenance costs for the roads. Sometimes we transport dangerous goods, which ideally, we want to get them off the road and carry on the rail,” he noted.
Helvi Fillipus, the senior government adviser, explained that Namibia is specifically targeting railway infrastructure to ease pressure, supported Mr Ndoves call.
She explained, “We are looking at the rail infrastructure because current ones are outdated and aged and therefore need to be upgraded. In addition, we have an ambition as a country to position Namibia as a logistics hub in the Southern Africa region, and specifically, we are targeting to provide services to our landlocked neighbours.
“We need to stabilize the system so that we can move heavier cargo on the rail. We also need to increase the speed at which the trains can move because at the moment it takes a longer to get the goods from one point to another.” At the conference, Namibia presented several infrastructure projects ranging from energy, rail, port expansion and green hydrogen to oil and gas.”
South Africa is Namibia’s largest trading partner and both countries are members of the South African Customs Union, the world’s oldest customs union.
According to the Observatory of Economic Complexity in 2022, Namibia exported $1.75B to South Africa. The main products that Namibia exported to South Africa are Gold ($860M, Special Purpose Ships ($356M), and Beer ($65.8M).
According to the OEC, In 2022, South Africa exported $3.3B to Namibia. The main products that South Africa exported to Namibia were Delivery Trucks ($171M), Cars ($94M), and Electricity ($93.3M).
