Amutse sets 80% electricity access target

Energy Minister Modestus Amutse says Namibia can reach 80% electricity connectivity before the end of the decade, a higher target than the government has officially set.

Speaking at the opening of the Namibia Electricity Supply Industry (ESI) Forum at the Avani Hotel in Windhoek last Thursday, the Minister of Industries, Mines and Energy said he believes the country can “do better” than its current benchmark, given the right push from every institution involved.

The government’s own targets are 70% access by 2030 and universal access by 2040. According to the 2023 Population and Housing Census, national access stands at just under 60%, comprising 46.9% via the grid and 12.6% via off-grid solar, mostly solar home systems.

Amutse said that more than 300 000 Namibian households still lack electricity, with over 212 000 in rural areas. Closing that gap, he said, is “the measure by which this Ministry, and this gathering, should be judged.”

The speech did not say how much the higher target would cost or how it would be funded.

**Under scrutiny **

Minister Amutse added that he had requested the Electricity Control Board to report how many of the generation licences it has issued are currently producing power.

“I would also ask this room not to mistake a licence for a kilowatt,” he said, adding that Namibia does not lack interest from generators but needs that interest converted into power on the grid within a realistic timeline.

**Reform and delivery **

Amutse continued that the legislative work to modernise the electricity sector, part of the broader energy sector reform, is “well advanced” and that he expects it to reach finality soon.

He noted that delivering the target depends on NamPower, regional electricity distributors (Nored, Cenored, ErongoRED, Oshakati Premier Electric and the newest, Sored), the Electricity Control Board, financiers such as the Environmental Investment Fund and the Development Bank of Namibia, as well as municipalities.

He also linked the effort to Namibia’s National Energy Compact under the continent-wide Mission 300 initiative.

He framed electricity as the foundation of President Netumbo Nandi-Ndaitwah’s agenda of industrialisation and poverty eradication. “A factory cannot industrialise in the dark,” he said, adding that a clinic cannot keep medicine safe without reliable power and a small trader cannot grow a business that closes at sunset.

** A test for next year **

Meanwhile, Amutse urged delegates to treat the forum as a work session rather than a conference and said he wants it to be remembered for the households connected by the next gathering.

“A year from now, I want this Forum to be remembered not for what was said in this hall, but for the households that had no connection this October and have one by the time we meet again,” he said.

The forum, held under the theme “Driving Affordable Energy Transformation Through Digital Innovation, Collaboration and Investment,” was convened by the Electricity Control Board and NamPower.

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