Alweendo calls for greater local financial participation in oil and gas sector

Staff Reporter

THE former Minister of Mines and Energy, Tom Alweendo, has called on local banks and financial institutions to take a more active role in Namibia’s emerging oil and gas industry, warning that failure to do so will leave the country’s financial value chain in the hands of foreign institutions.

“If local banks and other financial institutions remain outside the oil and gas sector, the financial value chain will be captured elsewhere. Advisory fees will be earned elsewhere. Project structuring will happen elsewhere. Local companies may win contracts on paper but fail to deliver because they cannot obtain working capital, equipment finance, guarantees or insurance support. Then we will face a painful contradiction: Namibia will have oil activity, but limited Namibian financial participation. We must not allow that,” he warned.