Government working aggressively to close ICT gap

Botswana has over 12000km of optical fibre connection and 90% access to mobile broadband services but Communication Knowledge and Technology Minister Honourable Thulagano Merafe Segokgo acknowledge that there is a lot that still needs to be done and promised government would continue to strive to enhance infrastructure and services to cover all areas of Botswana.

In his World Telecommunication and Information Society Day speech which was read by Minerals and Energy Minister Lefoko Maxwell Moagi, he urged the ICT sector to lead efforts to enable Batswana to become agile and responsive to the everchanging landscape of public governance, business, trade, and social relationship and most importantly, the digitalisation of our economy across all sectors.

There are still hard-to-reach and sparsely populated areas which do not entice the private sector to invest in connectivity and the Minister said the Government must find innovative and cost-effective ways to draw the private sector to provide them with connectivity.

Though the government continues to grapple with growing budget deficit, he called on the sector to find innovative ways to improve productivity and efficiency of production capabilities.

The Government is reportedly aggressively deploying services online to attain an inclusive digitalization agenda which will place over 500 public services online. This, according to the Minister will be shortly followed by the launch of over 120 online services.

Furthermore, Honourable Segokgo revealed that the Government, through the SmartBots Project, would connect over 500 villages nationwide.

“In the same planning period, my Ministry shall spend over 300 million pula to enhance the redundancy of the national backhaul through the National Backbone Project. Through the Local Access Project, my Ministry shall use over 200 million pula to provide last-mile connectivity in twelve villages and towns across Botswana,” he noted.

Furthermore, the Minister revealed that his team had undertaken a thorough analysis of the connectivity status in Bamalete area to identify gaps and service deficiencies. “Our stakeholders are already addressing some of the identified gaps and deficiencies. The Botswana Communications Regulatory Authority will develop a comprehensive plan for addressing gaps and challenges requiring substantial capital investments.

I expect the regulator to share the plan with local authorities so that they can monitor the implementation process easily. The plan will provide a clear roadmap for closing connectivity gaps in Ramotswa, Taung, Mogobane, and Otse by the end of December 2023,” he said.