11 Mar 2019

Government recognises that information and communication technology is one of the drivers of economic growth, says Minister of Transport and Communications, Ms Dorcas Makgato.

Speaking at Botswana Telecommunications Corporation (BTC) event at Kgale Earth Station recently, she said government adopted the National ‘Maitlamo’ in 2007 to create a roadmap for Botswana and Batswana to participate in the technological advancement that the world has experienced over the last few decades.

Ms Makgato said one of the pillars of Maitlamo policy was the development of an enabling ICT infrastructure, which have been undertaken in the country, and contribute to an excellent record of performance of ICT.

“As a nation, we need to invest in technological advancements that can help to diversify our economy, to drive and enhance the growth of other industries,” said the minister.

Ms Makgato said the launch of the BTC data centre and Satellite earth station bring the country closer to being able to close the digital divide between the connected and the not-connected in the country by bringing home the very technologies in the first world.

She said the launch is to celebrate the step that the BTC board and management had taken to invest in future technologies in order to position itself among its competitors at the least as an equal technological leader in the event-changing technological landscape.

Minister Makgato said the infrastructure launches BTC into the era of intelligent connectivity and stated also that government had a vested interest in the success of BTC as it held a majority shareholding of the company.

She said government was alive to the digitisation wave that had enveloped the world and its potential to create unprecedented volumes of growth and wealth for people.

She assured BTC management that her presence at the unveiling of various digital innovations was a demonstration that the government supported their efforts to bring the latest technologies that supported economic growth and digital inclusion.

The minister said the new BTC digital offerings would address the business needs of all the stakeholders in the country and bring a wealth of opportunities and efficiency to their day to day business operations while connecting Batswana wherever they are.

“Recently I was delighted to see a BTC mobile truck being transported across the Okavango River at Mohembo to the villages of Kauxwi, Ngarange and Seronga among others to enable Batswana who live in those localities to have access to communication services and products,” she said.

She said the launch was a demonstration that BTC was indeed committed to its purpose as contained in the BTC Act of 1980, which established the corporation that was to ensure access to communication services for all, wherever and whenever.

She said government continued, through partnerships, to connect villages and towns to the national fiber network by rolling out infrastructure to connect Batswana such as through the Universal Access Service Fund of UASF, that recently saw the computerisation and connectivity to the internet of several schools in some of the remote parts of the country.

This was done in partnership with BOCRA and different telecommunications operators including BTC.

Ms Makgato said the ministry’s mandate was to drive the development and utilisation of ICTs and integrated transport services in the country, and to achieve this the ministry had to formulate relevant ICT and transport policies as well as coordinate the implementation through national, regional and global collaborative efforts.

BTC managing director, Mr Anthony Masunga said the digital transformation, which started way back in 1994 when BTC switched from analogue to digital platform, was not a smooth route as one may think and applauded his team for a job well done. ENDS