A high-level government delegation from Windhoek on Monday visited the Biomass Industrial Park under construction outside Otjiwarongo.

The delegation was led by Minister of Industrialisation and Trade, Lucia Iipumbu and the Deputy Executive Director in the same ministry, Dr Michael Muhavindu.

They were accompanied by several trade policy analysts.

Specialist Advisor in the Ministry of Labour, Industrial Relations and Employment Creation, Vicki ya Toivo, also formed part of the site visit to the Otjiwarongo Biomass Industrial Pak.

According to Ya Toivo, the purpose for the visit was to see how best strategies would be formulated with the trade ministry, Otjiwarongo Municipality and some cooperatives that will work at this biomass production and renewable energy plant.

‘Government, through our ministry, envisions the creation of about 3 000 jobs in a period of two years once the project starts to produce,’ said Ya Toivo.

Otjozondjupa Governor, James Uerikua, at a briefing shortly before the site visit, sa
id he was excited to see that funds, human resources and the electricity supply needed to start production at the biomass plant, especially the production of animal feed and value added charcoal from the acacia bush, have all been secured.

During the physical site visit by the delegation it was established that an animal feed processing plant was completed and is ready for manufacturing.

A warehouse for storing dried wood was also found to be completed, with only minor connections being finalised.

Uerikua explained that the real idea is to reduce bush encroachment on the government farms by means of cutting down acacia bushes and manufacturing such wood into value added charcoal and animal feed so that the cleared land would produce enough grass for the animals on the farmlands.

Source: The Namibia Press Agency