Namibia – April 2004

Daniel Norman Tumason

1,9 million peopleGrowth rate 3,1%

Flood plains

Desert

1320 km

350 km

1440 km

Sam Nujoma president

Minerals in the economy

• 10.000 people work in formal mining.

• Also 1000 informal miners.

• 12% of the GDP now down from 25% in the 1980s – new sectors entered the economy.– price of minerals has dropped.

• Biggest portion of the income in foreign currency.

• Produces 6% of the world’s uranium– One of the largest uranium mines in world

Other mineral resources

• Diamonds, on land and off-shore

(gem quality)

• Gold

• Copper

• Semi-precious stones

• Tantalite, tin, lead,

• Zinc

Agriculture

• More than half of all the jobs.

• About 4000 farms - belong mostly to white farmers who farm cattle and sheep extensively and export the meat to South Africa.

• Some farms produce ostrich meat, mainly for export.

The Atlantic coast

Fisheries

• Namibia has rich fishing grounds– Because of the Benguela current– Total catch is about 600.000 t per year– Total fleet about 350 vessels– Fish is about 25% of exports – Main species :

• Hake, orange roughy, rock lobster, crab (demersal)• Horse mackerel, pilchard, sardine, tuna (pelagic)

• Hake

• Horse mackerel (tunny)

• Orange roughy

• Sardines

Tourism

• The annual number of visitors is nearing the one-million mark.

• What do they do?– Spots of natural beauty– Golfing– Dune adventures– German towns – Swakopmund, Luderitz– People

• Wild animals– Zebra– Ostriches

Causes of death

• In Namibia 6,934 people die of AIDS every year. But every year 19,624 people die so about 1/3 of Namibian deaths are from AIDS.

• In Iceland about 2000 people die every year and nobody died of AIDS year 2000 in Iceland.

Nuggets

• Namibia is home to the largest population of cheetah still in existence.

• Namibia has more kilometres of road per capita than any other part of Africa.

• The Fish River Canyon is 27km wide and 550m deep.

• One of Africa's endangered species, the black rhino finds sanctuary in Etosha.http://www.met.gov.na/central.html

Icelandic International Development Agency

Thank you!

From the Out of Africa cafe in Swakopmund