Youth succession: A strategic missed opportunity
OPINION
Namibia stands at the threshold of an unprecedented economic transformation with its emerging petroleum sector. The National Upstream Petroleum Local Content Policy makes admirable commitments to capacity building, skills transfer and stakeholder participation. But conspicuously absent is a deliberate strategy for youth succession – a structural oversight with far-reaching implications.
The critical question for policymakers, industry leaders and international partners is this: Does Namibia’s local content framework create a deliberate pathway for youth leadership succession in strategic sectors?
We cannot continue the narrative of youth empowerment without intentional leadership development and succession planning. It is no longer enough to train youth to support – we must prepare them to lead under mentorship at executive and boardroom level. Namibia will only realise its oil-and-gas promise when its youth are key actors in decision-making, not passive observers.
We (the youth) do not need our leaders to fail for us to succeed and our leaders do not need the youth to fail in order to succeed.
This is not a zero-sum game. It is a nation-building imperative that demands intergenerational collaboration, respect and vision. Namibia’s success hinges on all of us playing our part with unity of purpose.
As NJ Ayuk rightly emphasised at the Namibia International Energy Conference 2025: “Our defining moment arrives with first oil production.”
But the true measure of our nation’s maturity will be whether we’ve nurtured leaders ready to steward that future.
History taught us well – our independence was won by veterans and educated exiles who returned to lead. Today’s strategic imperative demands that we replicate this model: identify, mentor and position Namibia’s young talent for national leadership.
The world is in a war for talent and innovation. Namibia must position itself not just by extracting resources but by extracting leadership potential from within. The time is now to institutionalise youth succession into national policy frameworks, making it a cornerstone of sustainable governance and inclusive growth.
To Namibia’s leadership: the future will judge us not by what we build, but by who we build it for.
*Kovimariva Samuel Mungunda is a final-year accounting (Honours) student (Unam) and a graduate in Cert Fundamentals of Oil & Gas Engineering (Unam).
The critical question for policymakers, industry leaders and international partners is this: Does Namibia’s local content framework create a deliberate pathway for youth leadership succession in strategic sectors?
We cannot continue the narrative of youth empowerment without intentional leadership development and succession planning. It is no longer enough to train youth to support – we must prepare them to lead under mentorship at executive and boardroom level. Namibia will only realise its oil-and-gas promise when its youth are key actors in decision-making, not passive observers.
We (the youth) do not need our leaders to fail for us to succeed and our leaders do not need the youth to fail in order to succeed.
This is not a zero-sum game. It is a nation-building imperative that demands intergenerational collaboration, respect and vision. Namibia’s success hinges on all of us playing our part with unity of purpose.
As NJ Ayuk rightly emphasised at the Namibia International Energy Conference 2025: “Our defining moment arrives with first oil production.”
But the true measure of our nation’s maturity will be whether we’ve nurtured leaders ready to steward that future.
History taught us well – our independence was won by veterans and educated exiles who returned to lead. Today’s strategic imperative demands that we replicate this model: identify, mentor and position Namibia’s young talent for national leadership.
The world is in a war for talent and innovation. Namibia must position itself not just by extracting resources but by extracting leadership potential from within. The time is now to institutionalise youth succession into national policy frameworks, making it a cornerstone of sustainable governance and inclusive growth.
To Namibia’s leadership: the future will judge us not by what we build, but by who we build it for.
*Kovimariva Samuel Mungunda is a final-year accounting (Honours) student (Unam) and a graduate in Cert Fundamentals of Oil & Gas Engineering (Unam).
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