Namibia will push foreign investors in critical minerals to establish domestic processing plants and partner with local businesses as the government seeks to capture more value from its mineral resources and create jobs, President Netumbo Nandi-Ndaitwah has said.

"When you are coming to Namibia, you don't want to be a briefcase business," Nandi-Ndaitwah told Semafor at an Invest Africa event on the sidelines of the United Nations General Assembly.

"You have to put up a processing plant in our country."

She said foreign investors should also partner with Namibian entrepreneurs "so that you become part and parcel of us".

Asked whether local partnerships would become mandatory for foreign investors, Nandi-Ndaitwah said: "In fact, we are putting it in the law."

Nandi-Ndaitwah did not specify what level or form of local participation the proposed legislation would require.

The pledge has a long history. Namibia's empowerment framework won cabinet approval in 2015 and was meant to become law by 2018, but stalled over a clause requiring businesses owned by previously advantaged Namibians to cede 25% to previously disadvantaged citizens, which was dropped in 2018, amid business warnings that it would deter foreign investment. Officials described the bill as at an "advanced stage" as recently as last October, Semafor reported.

Namibia has already taken steps to increase local participation and processing. In 2023, the government restricted exports of unprocessed lithium and several other critical minerals as part of its push for domestic value addition, according to government policy statements.

Since April 2021, Namibians awarded exploration and prospecting licences who dilute their ownership to foreign investors have been required to retain at least a 15% stake.

Officials proposed mechanisms aimed at 51% Namibian ownership in new mining ventures in 2025, drawing opposition from the Chamber of Mines. The government subsequently clarified that it had not adopted a fixed local-ownership threshold and would consult stakeholders, according to the Chamber.

The Chamber supports greater domestic value addition but has cautioned that processing must remain commercially viable and globally competitive, with the economics depending on factors including energy and water costs, logistics, deposit size and international commodity prices, according to its industry position. IntelliNews has also reported that processing at scale would require additional power, transport, finance and technical capacity.

Namibia is the world's third-largest uranium producer and also has deposits of lithium, rare earths, copper and graphite. It produced 7,333 tonnes of uranium in 2024, representing about 12% of global mine output, behind Kazakhstan and Canada, according to the World Nuclear Association.

During a July visit to China General Nuclear Power Corporation (CGN), which is linked to Namibia's Husab uranium mine, Nandi-Ndaitwah called for deeper cooperation in value addition, technology transfer and skills development. Namibia has yet to develop a downstream nuclear-fuel industry beyond mine-site concentrate production, IntelliNews reported.

Nandi-Ndaitwah said greater domestic participation was partly aimed at tackling unemployment.

"Over 40% of our people are unemployed. And we are sitting on a time bomb," she said. "Even when you have your mine there, it's not safe."

Her figure does not correspond exactly to the latest headline measure: the Namibia Statistics Agency puts unemployment at 36.9%, while a broader measure including the potential labour force stands at 54.8%.

Nandi-Ndaitwah, elected president in 2024, campaigned on creating more than 500,000 employment opportunities over five years and said NAD85bn would be directed towards job creation. She has since clarified that the target includes jobs generated through private-sector expansion rather than direct government hiring.

The push for greater local participation forms part of that employment strategy, with Nandi-Ndaitwah arguing that mineral investment should generate more processing, procurement and jobs inside Namibia.