Hyphen hosts supplier workshop
On the sidelines of the EU-Namibia Business Forum 2026, Hyphen Hydrogen Energy (“Hyphen”), in collaboration with AHK Southern Africa (AHK) and Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ), convened a targeted Enterprise & Supplier Development (ESD) ground-truthing workshop in Windhoek on 11 May 2026.
The workshop forms part of ongoing efforts to strengthen Namibian enterprise participation in the emerging green hydrogen sector and broader industrialisation agenda. It also builds on the Letter of Intent concluded between Hyphen and AHK Southern Africa and supports the implementation of Hyphen’s ESD Programme currently being developed under the H2Uppp funding, facilitated by GIZ. Earlier this year, Hyphen secured €300,000 in matched funding under the H2Uppp initiative, a private sector support instrument of the German Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Energy (BMWE) The collaboration aims to support the development of an ESD programme designed not only to support the Hyphen project, but to contribute to building long-term capacity and competitiveness within Namibia’s broader green industrial economy.
Hyphen is currently developing Namibia’s first large-scale green hydrogen project under a Feasibility and Implementation Agreement (FIA) with the Government of the Republic of Namibia (GRN). The project carries a local procurement target of 30.6% of its estimated €10 billion capex investment, creating substantial opportunities for Namibian enterprises across renewable energy, logistics, civil infrastructure, manufacturing, services, operations and maintenance, and associated value chains. The workshop brought together ESD practitioners, development finance institutions, commercial banks, business support organisations and government stakeholders to engage in a practical, execution-focused discussion on the realities of enabling meaningful local participation at scale.
Rather than focusing on policy in the abstract, the session interrogated the systemic bottlenecks and structural constraints that continue to limit enterprise participation in large infrastructure and industrial projects.
Discussions focused on:
- Access to finance and enterprise bankability
- Procurement readiness and qualification barriers
- Enterprise capability and scalability
- Coordination gaps across the ESD ecosystem
- Structural and implementation challenges affecting local participation
The workshop used the Hyphen project as a practical anchor and case study, while aiming to generate insights and recommendations that are transferable across the green hydrogen sector and Namibia’s wider industrialisation efforts. Speaking ahead of the event, Johannes Shipepe, Senior Economic Development Manager responsible for Local Content and ESD noted that unlocking local participation requires far more than setting targets.
“Local content ambitions alone are not enough. If Namibia is to realise the socio-economic potential of green hydrogen fully, we must collectively understand where the real bottlenecks lie - whether in procurement design, access to finance, technical capability, or ecosystem coordination - and work collaboratively to address them.”
The workshop reflects growing collaboration between industry, GRN, development partners and business support institutions to ensure that Namibia’s green hydrogen sector contributes meaningfully to enterprise development, industrial capability and long-term economic transformation.
