Namibia doubles down on SADC’s minerals
Southern African Development Community (SADC) leaders have called for a major shift from exporting raw minerals and agricultural products to processing them within the region. They warned that slow implementation of regional integration is costing jobs, investment and economic opportunities. The call was made at the 46th Ordinary Summit of SADC Heads of State and... The post Namibia doubles down on SADC’s minerals appeared first on New Era .
Southern African Development Community (SADC) leaders have called for a major shift from exporting raw minerals and agricultural products to processing them within the region.
They warned that slow implementation of regional integration is costing jobs, investment and economic opportunities.
The call was made at the 46th Ordinary Summit of SADC Heads of State and Government in Durban, South Africa.
It was attended by President Netumbo Nandi-Ndaitwah and other member states seek to accelerate industrialisation, strengthen regional value chains and increase trade among themselves.
South African president Cyril Ramaphosa, who assumed the SADC chairpersonship from Zimbabwean president Emmerson Mnangagwa, said the region had made progress but was still not moving fast enough.
“While our regional integration agenda is making progress, the pace of transformation remains slow,” Ramaphosa said.
He said SADC recorded economic growth of about 3.4% in 2025, but intra-SADC trade accounted for only about one-fifth of the region’s total trade.
“We continue to import too many goods that we could produce within our region. We continue to export, as we heard from our executive secretary, raw materials that we could process and beneficiate here ourselves in our region,” he said.
Ramaphosa stated that every raw material exported without beneficiation represented value leaving the region, while imported goods that could be produced locally represented jobs that could have been created in Southern African communities.
Namibia is seeking to align its national priorities with this regional industrialisation drive, particularly through mineral beneficiation and the creation of regional value chains.
Minister of International Relations and Trade Selma Ashipala-Musavyi, speaking in Durban to NBC, said Namibia’s position was strongly aligned with the SADC agenda.
“Namibia has seven national priorities, and value addition and beneficiation of mineral resources is a strong point among those national priorities,” she said.
Ashipala-Musavyi said Namibia had argued during the Council of Ministers meeting that countries should not only add value to their own resources but should also work together to develop regional industries.
“So, we were hammering on that point that we really need first to add value to our resources, but it is important that we create regional value chains,” she said.
The United Nations Economic Commission for Africa (ECA) also urged SADC countries to move beyond exporting raw materials and capture more of the wealth generated from their natural resources.
The ECA speaker said Africa possesses about 30% of the world’s reserves of critical energy-transition minerals, but much of the continent’s resources are still exported for processing elsewhere.
The speaker identified several possible regional value-chain corridors, including a lithium industrialisation corridor involving Zimbabwe, Namibia, Botswana and South Africa, as well as an iron ore, manganese and green industrial materials corridor involving several African countries, including Namibia.
“Regional value chains must become the cornerstone of Africa’s industrialization and industrial transformation,” the ECA said. In addition, peace and security remained another major concern.
Ashipala-Musavyi said the region was following developments in the DRC and Madagascar.
“To ensure that peace and stability return to DRC,” she said, while noting progress by the SADC Panel of Elders in efforts to bring people in Madagascar together and restore peace through an inclusive process.
Ramaphosa said economic development could not be separated from peace and stability. “Peace without development is fragile. Development without peace is impossible,” he said.
Ramaphosa urged leaders to ensure that summit decisions translate into actual projects. “Our communique must become construction sites, factories, power lines, water systems, laboratories and businesses, and create jobs for our young people,” he said.
He called for a SADC that moves beyond declarations and delivers visible economic benefits to ordinary citizens.
“I would like to see this summit to be remembered, not merely for the declarations that we will adopt but for the decisions that we implement,” Ramaphosa said. The outgoing chairperson, Mnangagwa, also placed beneficiation at the centre of his message as he handed over the leadership of SADC to Ramaphosa.
“The primary goal of this theme is to ensure that we add value to our heritage-based resources and move away from exporting raw materials by building local refining and manufacturing capacities,” Mnangagwa said.
He said processing minerals locally would create jobs, encourage innovation and ensure that more value remains within the region.
“By processing our minerals, we create jobs, foster innovation and retain the values that rightfully belong to our people,” Mnangagwa said.
– ljason@nepc.com.na
