Ministry of Trade and Industry (Namibia)

The Ministry of Industrialisation and Trade (MIT) was a government ministry of Namibia, with headquarters in Windhoek. It was created at Namibian independence in 1990 as Ministry of Trade and Industry,^[1] renamed Ministry of Industrialisation, Trade and SME Development in 2015, and got the name Ministry of Industrialisation and Trade in 2020. The first Namibian minister of trade was Ben Amathila.^[2]

In 2025 the ministry was disestablished. The trade portfolio was given to the foreign affairs ministry, and the industry portfolio to the Ministry of Mines and Energy.^[3] The current^[update] Minister of International Relations and Trade is Selma Ashipala-Musavyi, the Minister of Mines, Energy and Industry is Natangwe Ithete.

Ministers

All trade and industry ministers in chronological order are:^[1]

#	Picture	Name	(Birth–Death)	Party	Term start	Term end
Minister of Trade and Industry
01		Ben Amathila	1938–	SWAPO	1990	1993
02		Hidipo Hamutenya	1939–2016	SWAPO	1993	2005
03		Immanuel Ngatjizeko	1952–2022	SWAPO	2005	2008
04		Hage Geingob	1941–	SWAPO	2008	2012
05		Calle Schlettwein	1954–	SWAPO	2012	2015
Minister of Industrialization, Trade and SME Development
0		Immanuel Ngatjizeko	1952–2022	SWAPO	2015	2018
06		Tjekero Tweya	1967–	SWAPO	2018	2020
Minister of Industrialisation and Trade
07		Lucia Iipumbu[4]	1975–	SWAPO	2020	2025

#	Picture	Name	(Birth–Death)	Party	Term start	Term end
Minister of International Relations and Trade
08		Selma Ashipala-Musavyi	1960–	SWAPO	2025
Minister of Mines, Energy and Industry
08		Natangwe Ithete	1976–	SWAPO	2025

This list is complete and up to date as of July 2025.

See also

• Economy of Namibia