03 Mar 2022

The Ministry of Nationality, Immigration and Gender Affairs will spend about P80 million under its development budget for the 2022/2023 financial year to develop the electronic national identification system (biometric Omang).

That came to light in the ministry’s budget proposal that Minister Annah Mokgethi presented on Tuesday.

Ms Mokgethi had requested Parliament to approve over P578 million for the ministry’s recurrent and development budget. 

She said the recurrent budget would take a lion’s share of the proposed budget at over P443 million while the ministry required over P135 million for its development budget.  

Ms Mokgethi said the largest share of the development budget, which translated to over P86 millon would be used for the provision of the computerisation project, out of which about P80 million would fund the envisaged biometric Omang.

Still under the development budget, the ministry will use about P4 million for computerisation of border posts and installation of the  public key directory.

In addition, she said over P1 million would be used to acquire hardware, while the ministry would use the remaining P731 808 to procure Information and Communication Technology (ICT) equipment for the ministry’s new offices.

For the infrastructural development, Ms Mokgethi said the ministry would use over P49 million, out of which P32 million would be used to complete the refurbishment of the ministry headquarters building while  P3 million would be used to procure porta cabins for use as office and residential accommodation at Dobe border post.

Furthermore, she said P10.5 million would be used to purchase houses for the ministry staff countrywide while the remaining P4 million would be used to undertake a feasibility study on the establishment of an Off-site Business Continuity Production Centre, which would house both Botswana Passport Production facility and the Omang Data Centre.

Under the recurrent budget of over P443 million, Ms Mokgethi said the ministry headquarters would spend over P55 million, which translated to an increase of 1.2 per cent mainly to cover office rentals for new buildings that had been leased.

Furthermore, she said over P250 million would be allocated to the Department of Immigration and Citizenship, over P47 million to the Department of Gender Affairs and over P89 million to the Department of Civil and National Registration.

Giving progress on the implementation of development projects during the 2021/2022 financial year, Minister Mokgethi said 34 ports of entry, which included four airports and six posts, which included Two Rivers, Bokspits, Makopong, Paarshalt, Zanzibar and Mabolwe had not yet been installed with the Passport and Border Control System.

She said the first phase, which involved cabling at all six borders and procurement of the necessary hardware, had not been completed, while installation of the passport and Border Control system would be completed this financial year.

In addition, she said Dobe Border Post had not been targeted for computerisation as the requisite infrastructure was yet to be put in place.

Meanwhile, Ms Mokgethi expressed concern about the escalating and gruesome gender based violence cases, particularly during the COVID-19 pandemic.

However, she said in an effort to house gender based violence survivors, government increased financial support to the Botswana GBV Prevention and Support Centre based in Gaborone and the Women against Rape centre in Maun. She said funds were used to secure new places of safety and provide other services such as psycho-social support and medical assistance.

Ms Mokgethi indicated that the ministry concluded the feasibility study on the establishment and strengthening of safe havens in March last year, and the findings and recommendations of the study were being considered to determine the approach that government could adopt in housing gender-based violence survivors.

Ms Mokgethi also acknowledged the significant contribution of the First Lady, Ms Neo Masisi in the national gender-based violence response.

“Since the assumption of office, the First Lady has demonstrated her commitment and unwavering support to my ministry as she traversed the length and breadth of this country to raise awareness, especially on GBV prevention,” she said. ends