President Netumbo Nandi-Ndaitwah has re-emphasised the need to create 500,000 jobs over the next five years.

Mining is among the industries identified as having the potential to create employment.

During a courtesy visit on Wednesday by the Chamber of Mines delegation to Statehouse, President Nandi-Ndaitwah said that with value addition in mining, the potential to create more jobs is feasible. 

She called for strong investment in sectors able to create more jobs. 

"The serious situation in which we find ourselves is the poverty in the country and the big gap between the haves and the have-nots, and this is a result of high unemployment, particularly among our youth. So we are now setting ourselves the goal that in the next five years we would want to create not less than 500,000 jobs, and we are looking at all sectors of our economy, including mining. In its nature, mining is capital-intensive, but I believe with value addition, we may create extra jobs, and if we can generate resources from our mining industry, we can feed into other sectors, such as agriculture, that can create employment opportunities. So this underlines the importance of this sector in the Namibian economy, and that's why under our election manifesto, we put it as an enabler for us to meet our seven priorities."

President of the Chamber of Mines George Botshiwe noted many new discoveries in the sector, which he said could result in more jobs. 

"We invested in 2024 over $1 trillion, $1 billion, in exploration. And the real exploration is the backbone of the mining industry.  And with that, already this year, in this medium term, three mines are coming on stream. Currently, we employ just over 20,000 people per month on a fixed basis. And another 150,000 are indirectly employed because of the mining industry. And with these three mines coming on stream, that number only can go up. And also, in this exploration, there are a lot of new discoveries coming up."