MP raises concerns about data control of smart-city grant from China

Eugenia Moche

Namibia’s N$245 million smart-city grant from China has raised concerns about whether the country has enforceable sovereign safeguards, or if a hidden agenda is buried in the agreement.

IPC shadow minister of international relations and trade, Rodney Cloete, told the Windhoek Observer that it could bind the country to decades of technological dependence.

Cloete highlighted that the danger lies not in the size of the grant but in the systems, data, and dependency attached to it.

“A free installation can produce thirty years of paid dependence,” he said, warning that Namibia could remain reliant on a single provider for software licences, cloud services, maintenance, and cybersecurity.