Usakos oil storage facilty to create 1 600 new jobs

WINDHOEK, 10 MAY – The Usakos Town Council plans to create about 1 600 direct and indirect new employment opportunities with the establishment of a multi-million dollar fuel and gas storage facility at the town within the next few years.
MDL International Trade is in the process of setting up the facility worth N.dollars 700 million at the town on 15 hectares of land it bought from the town council.
This was revealed by Erongo Regional Governor, Cleophas Mutjavikua in his State of the Region Address in Swakopmund on Tuesday evening.
The governor informed Erongo residents that the envisaged fuel and gas terminal, with the capacity of over 200 million litres, is mainly planned for the distribution of fuel and gas products to countries such as Angola, Botswana, Democratic Republic of Congo, Zambia and Zimbabwe.
“We can confirm that MDL International has already commenced with phase one, which is the establishment of the logistics centre at the town of Usakos. Phase two, which will involve the construction of the actual storage terminal, will commence during the course of this year,” explained Mutjavikua.
He said the whole investment by the company will amount to over N.dollars 43 billion after completion.
The construction of the storage facility will take about 18 months, and work on the temporary logistics base at the town has already created about 120 direct and indirect jobs.
The project falls within government’s strategic plan to align the country as a strategic logistics hub and gateway to other Southern African Development Community (SADC) countries for trade by the year 2022.
Fuel and gas imports will be transported from the Port of Walvis Bay and stored at the facility before being transported to other SADC member states.
Usakos lies on the banks of the Khan River, some 140 kilometres north-east of Swakopmund in the Erongo Region. It is located on the B2 Trans-Kalahari Highway, the main road between the Port of Walvis Bay and Johannesburg, South Africa.
Usakos’s current unemployment rate is reported to be around 60 per cent, and the town has not seen sustainable development since Namibia attained independence from South Africa in 1990.
Usakos was downgraded from a municipality to town status in 2010, and is now governed by a town council.
The town has about 3 000 inhabitants and occupies approximately 58 square kilometres of land.
MDL, which started its operations in Namibia in 1998, provides integrated shipping and logistics solutions to the energy, mining, and infrastructure sectors.
It is headquartered in Windhoek.

NAMPA