Pretoria, South Africa — The African Development Bank’s Board of Directors has approved a $10 million loan to Hyphen Hydrogen Energy, a Namibian green hydrogen development company, to support a green ammonia project valued at more than $10 billion and with the potential to position Namibia as a pioneer in the global green hydrogen economy.
The loan, sourced from the Sustainable Energy Fund for Africa (SEFA), will support front-end engineering design studies for solar and wind generation, battery energy storage systems, and electrolyser capacity and desalination infrastructure, thereby de-risking the project and attracting the financing required for its realisation.
SEFA is a multi-donor Special Fund that provides catalytic finance to unlock private sector investments in renewable energy and energy efficiency. SEFA offers technical assistance and concessional finance instruments to remove market barriers, build a more robust pipeline of projects, and improve the risk-return profile of individual investments.
The project is poised to leverage the country’s world-class solar and wind energy resources, The first phase includes 3.75 GW of renewable energy generation, battery storage, 1.5 GW of electrolyser capacity, and supporting infrastructure such as desalination facilities, pipelines, transmission lines, and enhanced port facilities—all developed to the highest environmental and social standards.
Once completed, the project is projected to produce 2 million tons of green ammonia annually for export to key markets, while contributing to local economic development under a comprehensive socio-economic development plan embedded in the project’s 40-year concession agreement.
It will additionally avert annual emissions of 5 million tons of Co2—the equivalent of removing over one million cars from the road—while deploying 7.5 gigawatts of renewable energy generation capacity, more than 10 times Namibia’s current installed capacity. Additionally, the project will supply 3 million liters of clean water through desalination daily to the water-scarce region of Lüderitz in Southern Namibia.
Moono Mupotola, African Development Bank Country Manager for Namibia and Deputy Director General for Southern Africa, said: “This is about far more than energy infrastructure,” said. “This is about demonstrating Africa’s capacity to lead the global energy transition, create quality jobs for our youth, and build prosperity while protecting our planet. Namibia is showing the world that Africa is not just participating in the green economy —we are defining it.”
“The African Development Bank’s approval of this pre-investment facility represents a strong vote of confidence in Hyphen’s project and in the broad ambitions of Namibia to develop one of the world’s most transformative green hydrogen projects,” said Marco Raffinetti, CEO, Hyphen Hydrogen Energy. “We are deeply appreciative of the African Development Bank for partnering with us in the development of this transformative project. This facility, which will be utilised to partially fund the technical design phase of the project on our journey to the final investment decision.”
“SEFA’s intervention is catalytic,” said Daniel Schroth, Director for Renewable Energy and Energy Efficiency at the African Development Bank. “By supporting these essential pre-investment activities, we are unlocking billions in project financing. This is a strategic, high-impact development project.”
The project is expected to generate 15,000 construction jobs and 3,000 permanent positions, 90% of these reserved for Namibian nationals and 20% specifically targeting youth in a country where youth unemployment exceeds 38%.
The Hyphen project is viewed as a flagship of the government’s Southern Corridor Development Initiative. It is expected to have a demonstration effect across Africa, particularly in countries that have abundant renewable energy resources.
