Trade lanes

What Namibia buys, and from whom.

Namibia imported USD 5.8bn of manufactured and processed goods in 2024, up 28 per cent on 2022. These are its twenty largest source countries. 1 of them ship enough, across enough product lines, to have a lane page of their own.

Trade year 2024, compared with 2022.

By source

The twenty countries Namibia imports most from.

A lane page is written where the source ships USD 1bn or more a year across at least 50 product lines worth USD 1m each. For what Namibia is best placed to make itself, see Made here: Namibia.

  1. 1

    South Africa

    Share of Namibia's imports52 per cent
    Changeup 12 per cent on 2022
    USD 3.0bnin 2024
  2. 2

    China

    Share of Namibia's imports14 per cent
    Changeup 47 per cent on 2022
    Lane pageunder the lane threshold
    USD 823min 2024
  3. 3

    United States

    Share of Namibia's imports4 per cent
    Changeup 43 per cent on 2022
    Lane pageunder the lane threshold
    USD 236min 2024
  4. 4

    Germany

    Share of Namibia's imports3 per cent
    Changeup 108 per cent on 2022
    Lane pageunder the lane threshold
    USD 189min 2024
  5. 5

    Japan

    Share of Namibia's imports3 per cent
    Changeup 65 per cent on 2022
    Lane pageunder the lane threshold
    USD 146min 2024
  6. 6

    Democratic Republic of the Congo

    Share of Namibia's imports2 per cent
    Changeup 23 per cent on 2022
    Lane pageunder the lane threshold
    USD 142min 2024
  7. 7

    India

    Share of Namibia's imports2 per cent
    Changeup 59 per cent on 2022
    Lane pageunder the lane threshold
    USD 133min 2024
  8. 8

    United Kingdom

    Share of Namibia's imports2 per cent
    Changeup 21 per cent on 2022
    Lane pageunder the lane threshold
    USD 98min 2024
  9. 9

    Morocco

    Share of Namibia's imports1 per cent
    Changeup 326 per cent on 2022
    Lane pageunder the lane threshold
    USD 74min 2024
  10. 10

    Spain

    Share of Namibia's imports1 per cent
    Changeup 117 per cent on 2022
    Lane pageunder the lane threshold
    USD 64min 2024
  11. 11

    France

    Share of Namibia's imports1 per cent
    Changeup 85 per cent on 2022
    Lane pageunder the lane threshold
    USD 48min 2024
  12. 12

    Angola

    Share of Namibia's imports1 per cent
    Changefrom USD 2m in 2022
    Lane pageunder the lane threshold
    USD 45min 2024
  13. 13

    Netherlands

    Share of Namibia's imports1 per cent
    Changeup 125 per cent on 2022
    Lane pageunder the lane threshold
    USD 44min 2024
  14. 14

    Italy

    Share of Namibia's imports1 per cent
    Changeup 60 per cent on 2022
    Lane pageunder the lane threshold
    USD 43min 2024
  15. 15

    Norway

    Share of Namibia's imports1 per cent
    Changeup 236 per cent on 2022
    Lane pageunder the lane threshold
    USD 41min 2024
  16. 16

    Australia

    Share of Namibia's imports1 per cent
    Changedown 2 per cent on 2022
    Lane pageunder the lane threshold
    USD 34min 2024
  17. 17

    Ireland

    Share of Namibia's imports1 per cent
    Changeup 7 per cent on 2022
    Lane pageunder the lane threshold
    USD 33min 2024
  18. 18

    Thailand

    Share of Namibia's imports1 per cent
    Changedown 7 per cent on 2022
    Lane pageunder the lane threshold
    USD 31min 2024
  19. 19

    Eswatini

    Share of Namibia's imports1 per cent
    Changeup 14 per cent on 2022
    Lane pageunder the lane threshold
    USD 27min 2024
  20. 20

    Sweden

    Share of Namibia's imports1 per cent
    Changeup 10 per cent on 2022
    Lane pageunder the lane threshold
    USD 27min 2024
What this record says

What crossed the border, what it was worth, and what it weighed.

Every figure on this page is from CEPII's BACI file, which reconciles what each pair of countries reports to the UN about the same shipment. Trade year 2024, compared with 2022. A line is one six-digit customs heading (HS 2022). Values are in US dollars at the border; growth is in current dollars, so part of any change is price, not volume.

Unit value. Unit values are customs values per tonne, declared at the border, not product prices. It is the value of a line divided by its declared weight, so it mixes grades, models and qualities under one heading. It is shown only where the weight is recorded, at least three source countries of USD 100k or more ship the line to Namibia with a weight, and the figure sits within a factor of five of the middle of those sources. Outside that band it is treated as a recording problem and left out.

Share is South Africa's part of everything Namibia imported in that line, from every source. Sources counts the countries that shipped any of it.

Scope. Manufactured and processed goods, customs chapters 16 to 96, without ores, fuels, precious metals, scrap, raw farm output and one-off capital and defence purchases: the same rule as the Made here pages.

What it does not say

A record of trade, not a shopping list.

What this record does not say: what sells at retail, what margin a trade leaves, how crowded the marketplaces are, or how much of a flow is re-exported through entrepots such as Hong Kong and Singapore.

A large line is not proof of an opening, and a lower unit value from another country is not proof the goods are the same. Tariffs, standards, freight, payment terms, lead times and the plain fact that a supplier is good at it are all invisible here. Nothing on this page is a forecast, a recommendation or a promise. No supplier company is named, because the record holds none.

Source: CEPII BACI, HS22, version 202601. Edition of 2026-11-03.