Mining industry must look to building resilience in its value chains from suppliers to downstream customers says Alweendo
The Minister of Mines and Energy, Tom Alweendo believes that the country’s mining industry must look to building resilience in its value chains, from suppliers to downstream customers.
Alweendo said this Wednesday on the occasion of the opening of the country’s virtual Mining Expo and Conference.
“If Namibia is going to continue to play an instrumental role in ensuring that the sector becomes a catalyst for economic development, we need to ask ourselves some tough, but necessary questions about our future as an industry,” he said.
According to Alweendo, Namibia’s mining industry accounts for 50% of exports and the total value of goods and services procured by the mining sector during 2020 is about N$12.3 billion.
“Even though the figure looks good, there is still a difference between Namibian registered Companies (foreign-owned) and Namibian owned companies. A significant portion of the local procurement amount still goes to foreign-owned Namibian registered companies. This gap needs to be breached,” he added.
Alweendo said it is for this reason, the Ministry of Mines and Energy together with the Chamber of Mines is developing a database for local inputs.
“The database will serve the industry by proving a platform for local suppliers to meet the needs of mining companies, and for mining companies to procure from locals,” he added.
Meanwhile, he said as Namibia rebounds stronger from the COVID-19 crisis, he is immensely proud of how the mining sector responded to the pandemic whereby operations continued and employees were kept safe.
“Namibia’s mining companies remained resilient and performed on all fronts whilst at the same time enhanced their social license to operate, strengthening their obligation in supporting their employees and communities in which they operate,” he said.
