| Oshikoto Region | |
| Settlement Type: | Region |
| Subdivision Type: | Country |
| Subdivision Name: | Namibia |
| Seat Type: | Capital |
| Seat: | Tsumeb (-2008), Omuthiya (2008-present) |
| Leader Title: | Governor |
| Leader Name: | Penda Ya Ndakolo[1] |
| Unit Pref: | Metric |
| Area Footnotes: | [2] |
| Area Total Km2: | 38,685 |
| Population Footnotes: | [3] [4] |
| Population Total: | 257,302 |
| Population As Of: | 2023 census |
| Population Density Km2: | auto |
| Timezone1: | CAT |
| Utc Offset1: | +2 |
| Blank Name Sec1: | HDI (2017) |
| Blank Info Sec1: | 0.636[5] · 7th |
Oshikoto is one of the fourteen regions of Namibia, named after Lake Otjikoto. Its capital is Omuthiya. Further major settlements in the region are Tsumeb, Otjikoto's capital until 2008, and Oniipa., Oshikoto had 112,170 registered voters.[6]
Oshikoto Region is named after Lake Otjikoto[7] near its former capital Tsumeb.
Oshikoto is one of only three Namibian regions without either a shoreline or a foreign border. It borders the following regions:
The region's population has grown significantly over recent years, partly as a result of resettling / redistribution within the Oshiwambo-speaking area. Apart from Tsumeb and Oniipa, people have settled in a corridor along the trunk road, sometimes forming quite dense concentrations.
The northern part of the region practices crop agriculture, whereas the main economic activities in the southern part are cattle rearing and mining. The two areas have important cultural and historical links in that the Ndonga people have extracted copper at Tsumeb since the earliest times in order to make rings and tools.
Pearl millet (Mahangu) is the principal crop in the north, while cattle are reared in the Mangetti and the Tsumeb district. Although the Tsumeb mine has only a limited life span, it provides a boost for the communal areas of the region together with the associated support industries and services.
Communication networks and infrastructure are well developed in the area: a paved trunk road runs across the region, linking it to both the south and the north of the country. The national microwave network terminates at Tsumeb, but telecommunications are now carried across the region and as far as Oshakati by means of a newly laid optical fiber cable.
According to the 2012 Namibia Labour Force Survey, unemployment in the Oshikoto Region is 26.4%.[8] Oshikoto has 200 schools with a total of 60,439 pupils.[9]
Oshikoto comprises eleven constituencies:
Electorally, Oshikoto is consistently dominated by the South West Africa People's Organization (SWAPO). In the 2004 regional election for the National Assembly of Namibia, SWAPO won all constituencies, and mostly by a landslide. In Eengodi no opposition party even nominated a candidate.[12]
The 2015 local and regional elections saw SWAPO obtain 98.8% of the votes cast (2010: 95.6%)[6] and win nine of the eleven constituencies uncontested .[13] The remaining two constituencies were also won by SWAPO with majorities well over 80%.[14]
Although SWAPO's support dropped to 73.2% of the total votes in the 2020 regional election it again won in all constituencies. Most of the non-SWAPO votes went to the upstart Independent Patriots for Change (IPC), an opposition party formed in August 2020.[6]