The Director General of the National Planning Commission and Chairperson of the Green Hydrogen Council, Obeth Kandjoze, detailed how Namibia spent the €40 million Germany provided last year for the development of the green hydrogen industry in the country.

Speaking at the Green Hydrogen Symposium in Windhoek, Kandjoze said that €5 million was set aside for skilling and upskilling Namibian youth and €30 million for green hydrogen projects.

Kandjoze said Namibia is harvesting the first green shoots of this funding, which provided scholarships to Namibian youth to study in various areas to capitalise on the emerging green hydrogen-related fields.

Scholarships, he said, were also granted to study towards master's degrees, also in green hydrogen fields.

He called on all scholarship beneficiaries to start cultivating what they studied.

More than 25 project proposals were received in this regard, and four projects were identified for funding.

All this was possible because the Namibian government and its German counterpart have decided, as Kandjoze said last year during the signing of the €40 million deal, to deploy resources and provide funding to feasibility studies and pilot plants to bring Namibia closer to economically viable solutions that will unlock the potential defined by scientists.