06 Jul 2014

The partnership between the Ministry of Youth, Sport and Culture through National Library of Botswana and the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation in providing access to Information and Communications Technologies continues to bear fruits through the project branded “Sesigo: Sefalana sa Kitso”.


On Friday July 4, the project was launched at Artesia reading room where the community can have access to ICTs for improvement of their social and economic wellbeing. 

Launching the Sesigo project, Mr Khan Masau said the project was first introduced at public libraries around the country and later rolled out over to villages in order to bring services closer to people.


He said the theme “Building an informed nation through the use of Information and Communication Technology (ICT)” resonates well with the Vision 2016 pillar of “an informed and educated nation”.

“This indicates that the use of ICTs in today’s world contribute to a society which can be creative in improving their lives through the use of information accessed from computers and internet.

”Mr Masau further said Artesia community can now have access to information on various government programmes such CEDA and Youth development Fund through internet thus bridging  the digital divide and cutting  the distance barrier in accessing resources.

Mr Masau said libraries are information centres that provide access to information on a wide variety of subjects  and  urged libraries to engage communities and stakeholders in designing programmes and delivering services of primary importance to communities.

“We are living in an era of ICT characterised by rapid technological developments and high speed access to information.

From cars we drive, the buses we board, the food we eat to the electricity we use at home, computers are somehow directly or indirectly used in making all these service possible, ”said Masau.

He said through the sesigo project, internet has reduced the world to a global village thereby facilitating easy access and quick retrieval of information.

He commended all stakeholders for making the project a success and appealed to community members to take advantage and exploit the services offered by the village reading room for their benefit and development.

Head of department for public libraries, Ms Chinnana Selolwane said through the vision 2016, library services has focused on the pillar of “An educated and informed nation” which the library services department has taken to heart.


Ms Selolwane said the Ministry of Youth, Sport and Culture, with the intention to change library services in Botswana to be at par with the information age, requested help from Bill and Melinda Gates from the United States of America.


She said the connection between the Government and Gates family led to the birth of Sesigo project with an objective to give Batswana free education through the use of computers and internet.


Ms Selolwane said Botswana was given money amounting to P33.25 million from the Gates Foundation while government gave the ministry P6.5 million to carry out the Sesigo project.


In his welcome remarks, Kgosi Tlhwane of Artesia village said the computers will go a long way in helping the community and bridging the communication gap.


He said nowadays computers are not a luxury but information sources valuable to everyone who have access to it hence the provision of these computers through the sesigo project has accomplished its intended objective.


He implored the youth to take advantage of the project and carry out research, communicate and find online services made available to them.
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