KfW Finances Africa’s First Green Iron Plant in Namibia

On Monday 6 November 2023, Namibia broke ground on the Oshivela project to build the first Green Iron Plant in Africa. In 2022, Namibia was the first African country to sign an agreement with EU to produce green hydrogen (#GH2) and supply minerals.

At the beginning, the Plant will produce 15,000 tonnes of iron per year without any carbon emissions thanks to the full use of renewable energy. Completion is expected by the end of 2024 and the production can ramp up to one million tonnes of #GreenIron annually.

During the initial phase of production, the Plant will generate 50 direct jobs with many more indirect jobs as well. The global demand for iron is about 2 billion tonnes per year so the growth potential is huge.

The project is financed by KfW which has provided EUR 13 million to build the iron making facility. As part of the agreement, Germany will import some of iron which can be processed into special #GreenSteel needed in electric vehicles and wind turbines. Namibia is quite satisfied to be able to graduate from an ore exporter to a manufacture of a product which possesses higher local value addition (#LVA) and is basically #CarbonNeutral.

The Plant will implement the HyIron technology which employs a state-of-the-art rotary kiln powered by Green Hydrogen. The HyIron Oshivela Plant is a JV between Namibian and German companies, and the project cost is estimated at EUR 30 million.

“This endeavour places Namibia at the forefront of the Green Industrial Transition by fostering a Green Hydrogen Economy to decarbonize downstream industries.”

Special German Envoy Rainer Baake

Namibia is rich in mining resources and has recently attracted a lot of interest from Eastern and Western companies. Thus, China invests mostly in uranium while Canada is in lithium, gold and zinc.