By Dhiladhila Magazine · April 2026
Two signatures move Namibia from importing shortfalls to trading power across a border.
On 14 April 2026 Namibia and Angola signed a power-purchase agreement and a joint development agreement for the ANNA interconnector, a link between the two countries’ networks. NamPower and Angola’s RNT will connect their grids and open the door to trading within the Southern African Power Pool.
For a country that has long bought electricity from its neighbours on tight terms, the deal changes the shape of supply risk. A firmer northern connection means more places to draw from, and a route to sell surplus when Namibia has it.
From dependence to trade
Namibia imports a meaningful share of its power, which historically meant taking what was available on the terms available. A dedicated interconnector with Angola reframes that relationship as a two-way market: Namibia can import when short and export when long, rather than only buying in a pinch.
That optionality is itself a form of security, because a grid with two strong external links is harder to leave in the dark than one with a single lifeline.
An interconnector turns a buyer into a trader.
What the two agreements do
The pairing matters. A power-purchase agreement sets the commercial terms for electricity crossing the border, while a joint development agreement governs building and operating the physical link. Together they cover both the wires and the deal that runs over them, which is what makes the interconnector bankable rather than aspirational.
Splitting the two would leave either a line with no market or a market with no line; signing both is the point.
One agreement builds the line, the other makes it pay.
The power-pool dimension
Linking to Angola also plugs Namibia more firmly into the Southern African Power Pool, the regional market through which members trade electricity. Membership of a deeper pool means access to more generators and more balancing options, and it rewards Namibia’s renewable potential by giving surplus somewhere to go.
For NamPower, that is a strategic upgrade: from a national utility managing scarcity to a participant in a regional market.
A bigger pool is a bigger buffer against a bad day.
The build is the caveat
The agreements are a beginning, not a switch. An interconnector is a major construction project with a multi-year horizon, and its benefit arrives only when the line is energised. Financing, routing and delivery on schedule are the real tests behind the signatures.
For a business, the practical read is that supply security improves on a horizon of years, not months, and the milestone to watch is commissioning, not signing.
The security is real, but it arrives with the finished line.
What it means for the tariff
For the ordinary electricity user, the promise of an interconnector is eventually a question of price and reliability. A grid with more places to buy from can, over time, source power more cheaply and avoid the costly emergency imports that push tariffs up during a shortfall. The benefit is indirect but real.
The caution is that new transmission has to be paid for, and those costs also flow into tariffs. Whether the interconnector lowers bills depends on the balance between cheaper sourcing and the price of the line, a calculation that will play out over years.
Cheaper sourcing and a costly line both land, eventually, on the bill.
For an energy-intensive business or a policymaker, the ANNA deal is a structural improvement in Namibia’s supply position: less dependence on a single import route, more access to a regional market. The decision it poses is whether to plan around a more connected grid now, while tracking the one variable that matters most – whether the interconnector is actually built on time.
Sources: Namibia-Angola power deal (The Extractor); NamPower
