Why China backs Namibia’s nuclear fuel rod production
On week-long trip to China, Namibian minister Selma Ashipala-Musavyi pitches investment case to business leaders in Shenzhen
China is backing Namibia’s bid to move beyond raw material exports by supporting the domestic processing of critical minerals and uranium.
In a joint communique issued on Friday following talks in Beijing between Foreign Minister Wang Yi and his counterpart Selma Ashipala-Musavyi, China pledged to help transform Namibia’s natural resources into higher-value products through domestic processing and downstream cooperation.
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In 2023, Namibia followed Zimbabwe in banning the export of unprocessed lithium and other critical elements, aiming to capture more value from the mineral supply chain.
With Beijing’s support, Namibia aims to improve its industrialisation and local processing capacity to “promote Namibia’s further integration into the global value chain”, especially in new energy, green hydrogen, oil and gas, mining and infrastructure, according to the joint statement.
“Cooperation between China and Namibia is of great significance for increasing the added value of key mineral resources, including uranium,” the joint statement noted, with Namibia inviting Chinese firms to invest and do business in the country to jointly promote the smooth development of major economic cooperation projects.
Aly-Khan Satchu, a sub-Saharan African geoeconomic analyst, said “beneficiation has been an age-old cry since the time of Kwame Nkrumah”, referring to the founding father and first president of Ghana.
Satchu said that as the United States behaved like a hegemon and seized resources, as seen in Venezuela and probably Cuba, “China is playing a much smarter 21st-century game”.