President Nangolo Mbumba says the Daures Green Hydrogen Village Project has reached a point of no return.

Dr. Mbumba says all must therefore exercise patience and wait for the project's full realisation.

The President met with the management of Daures Green Hydrogen Village and the leadership of Daure Daman Traditional Authority at State House.

Phase one of the project's construction is nearing completion and is currently 85 percent complete, ahead of its planned launch in July.

Once fully operational, the Daures Green Hydrogen Village project is expected to provide up to 1,000 jobs to Namibians, producing green hydrogen and green ammonia from renewable energy sources.

The CEO of the Daures Green Hydrogen Village Project, Jerome Namaseb, says, "To date, we have inducted over 200 Namibians who have worked in the construction process, and we anticipate 20/30 permanently. About 24 SMEs have been provided opportunities throughout, of which seven are from the Daures Constituency and procurement have been heavily skewed by local suppliers, except for instances where these cannot be sourced locally, and our local lead contractors, Nexus, are getting to work to ensure the completion of construction on site."

The Daure Daman Traditional Authority, which provided the land on which the development is taking place, wants youth from rural areas to be included in the project.

"There is no mention of the training of the youth in rural areas. This is making room for these people to be left behind or excluded during the commencement of the projects and to watch from the sidelines when the projects commence. If the sponsors find it essential to empower those at the above levels, how much is this assistance? The graduates need dropouts, and I will not be convinced by statements that they will receive training when the project starts. Therefore, my suggestion will be to call on the sponsors to also graft a criterion for the dropouts to be part of it from the start," says Daure Daman Traditional Authority's Gaob Zacharias Seibeb. 

President Mbumba has yet to visit the Daures Green Hydrogen Village Project, but he has applauded the consideration of young people from the onset.

He advised all stakeholders to give the project a chance to take off, for the overall development of the country.

"You put your hand out in the dark, not for yourself but for the community, and that is what all of us are doing, trying things that we have never done before, but if those bring development to our communities, constituencies,and country, let us try them. We have young people, and the job of traditional leaders is to keep culture and roots on the ground, and you have done that. You are doing that, and let us continue to do that. We should not doubt that what we are doing is somehow a mistake."

The Green Hydrogen Commissioner, James Mnyupe, says, "The Namibian GH programme has offered to partner with them and share costs, to even share a stage, but really, it would now be for the Namibian government to say that if the German government has brought this government this far, how can we all now hold hands to see this project get to that industrial scale where it can now produce those thousands of jobs and production of fertiliser to increase the yield of our agricultural sector?"

The Daures Green Hydrogen Village project is 100 percent Namibian owned, with a shareholding inclusive of traditional authorities and conservancies in the Daures Constituency in the Erongo Region.