Unemployment in the vast, sparsely populated desert country is estimated at 35 percent. The economy will have to grow by about 10 percent a year to reach the level of developed countries in 30 years. It is only growing by two to three percent annually. Analysts say it will be hard to create jobs with the fisheries industry levelling off, the agricultural sector stagnating and diamond-mining becoming more capital intensive. Nujoma can point to some improvements for the impoverished black majority who, like their counterparts in South Africa, were previously denied economic opportunities and subjected to apartheid.
More people now have access to basic health care, education, water and electricity.
But the deployment of Namibian troops in the costly civil war in the Democratic Republic of the Congo and the decision to allow neighbouring Angola to use Namibian territory to fight Unita rebels have undermined confidence in Nujoma's rule.