Although the majority of the population engages in subsistence agriculture and herding, Namibia has more than 200,000 skilled workers and a considerable number of well-trained professionals and managerials.

[9] Namibia is a higher-middle-income country with an annual GDP per capita of N$79,431 in 2022, but has extreme inequalities in income distribution and standard of living.

[12] However, this statistic may be misleading, as many Namibians in rural areas such as the northern regions do not live on the monetary system are self-sustainable with agriculture and farming.

The liberal Foreign Investment Act of 1990 provides guarantees against nationalisation, freedom to remit capital and profits, currency convertibility, and a process for settling disputes equitably.

However, the government runs and owns a number of companies such as TransNamib and NamPost, most of which need frequent financial assistance to stay afloat.

However, Namibia's economy is heavily dependent on the earnings generated from primary commodity exports in a few vital sectors, including minerals, especially diamonds, livestock, and fish.

In January 2021, President Hage Geingob formed the Namibia Investment Promotion and Development Board (NIPDB) led by Nangula Nelulu Uaandja.

Given its small domestic market but favourable location and a superb transport and communications base, Namibia is a leading advocate of regional economic integration.

Privatisation of several enterprises in coming years may stimulate long-run foreign investment, although with the trade union movement opposed, so far most politicians have been reluctant to advance the issue.

The Government of Namibia is making efforts to take advantage of the American-led African Growth and Opportunity Act (AGOA), which will provide preferential access to American markets for a long list of products.

The country also extracts silver, tin, vanadium, semiprecious gemstones, tantalite, phosphate, sulphur, and mines salt.

Namibia normally imports about 50% of its cereal requirements; in drought years food shortages are a major problem in rural areas.

To manage potential oil revenues effectively, the Namibian government has proposed the creation of a sovereign wealth fund.

This approach reflects Namibia's strategic planning to harness its oil resources responsibly while aiming for sustainable economic growth and ensuring that the benefits are widely distributed among its population.

These render conventional agriculture unsustainable for a growing number of land owners, with many diverting their economic activities to alternative of additional sources of income.

[33] In recent years, the utilisation of residual biomass that results from the control of woody plant encroachment has gained traction.

[35] Other products from local encroacher biomass include bush-based animal fodder,[36][37] wood-plastic composite materials,[38] thermal energy in a cement factory[39] and a brewery[40] and biochar.

[41][42] The clean, cold South Atlantic waters off the coast of Namibia are home to some of the richest fishing grounds in the world, with the potential for sustainable yields of 1.5 million tonnes per year.

[44] At the time of independence, fish stocks had fallen to dangerously low levels, due to the lack of protection and conservation of the fisheries and the over-exploitation of these resources.

This trend appears to have been halted and reversed since independence, as the Namibian Government is now pursuing a conservative resource management policy along with an aggressive fisheries enforcement campaign.

[45] On 12 November 2019, WikiLeaks published thousands of documents and email communication by Samherji's employees, called the Fishrot Files, that indicated hundreds of millions ISK had been paid to high ranking politicians and officials in Namibia with the objective of acquiring the country's coveted fishing quota.

Tourism is a major contributor (14.5%) to Namibia's GDP, creating tens of thousands of jobs (18.2% of all employment) directly or indirectly and servicing over a million tourists per annum.

The most visited places include the Caprivi Strip, Fish River Canyon, Sossusvlei, the Skeleton Coast Park, Sesriem, Etosha Pan and the coastal towns of Swakopmund, Walvis Bay and Lüderitz.

A large number of Namibians seeking jobs in the formal sector are held back due to a lack of necessary skills or training.

Namibians in the informal sector as well as in low-paid jobs like homemakers, gardeners or factory workers are unlikely to be covered by medical aid or a pension fund.