01 Aug 2023

Digital inclusion is a key area that need all to participate in order for the country to realise a digital and knowledge based economy, Orange Botswana director of legal and corporate affairs, Ms Lepata Mafa-Nthomola said.

Officially launching Orange Botswana 8^th digital women’s digital centre in partnership with Humana People to People in Selebi Phikwe Botshabelo on July 28, he said the objective the centres was to empower women with digital and entrepreneurial skills to create employment or to build their businesses.

She said that Orange Botswana digital inclusion strategy was premised on reducing digital disparity within women, the youth and learners.

“Our intention is to improve the lives of women especially in technology. We want to include  women in  Botshabelo and the rest of Selebi Phikwe who may be digitally excluded at the moment. This is the opportunity to bring them within the digital and knowledge based economy,” she said.

To ensure that this come to life, she said the company donated to the centre digital resources of 20 tablets, 10 laptops, a printer and four additional cartridges, a projector and projector screen, two mini servers loaded with content, blue-tooth speaker and cash amounting to P140 0000 for the refurbishment of the centre.

Ms Mafa-Nthomola explained that it was not the first partnership with Humana as they had the similar centre in Ghanzi. 

“We are happy with the way our relationship had been conducted hence we will continue to partner with them in different communities in which we both operate,” she said.

Other Orange Botswana projects included orange digital school program in which the company partnered with ministries of education and Local government with the objective to enhance access to quality education using ICT tools.

Orange Botswana also took the opportunity to launch Orange digital school programme at Tshokwe Primary school, making it the 70^th school to benefit from this programme alongside Joseph Anderson Primary school in Selebi Phikwe, Sedibe in Damochujenaa as well as Robelela Primary School.

She said the company also had a digital training centre dedicated to the youth in Gaborone, where they were trained on coding, fabrication and incubation of start-ups.

For his part the acting permanent secretary in the Ministry of Communication, Knowledge and technology Mr Pontsho Pusoentsi commended Orange Botswana for undertaking the three projects aimed at empowering the nation with digital skills and connecting them to the world. 

He encouraged the company to continue helping Batswana especially in the digital space to improve their lives for the better.

He said such gesture by Orange Botswana together with projects such as Smart Botswana, and Maikano would help this nation to heed the mindset change initiative and transform the country into a knowledge based economy.

He said the closure of BCL mine in Selebi Phikwe indicated that residents needed to work hard to diversify the economy of the mine instead of relying heavily on the mine as the economic backbone of the town.

Selebi Phikwe Town Council Mayor, Mr Lucas Modimana applauded Orange Botswana for the support it gave Batswana especially Selebi Phikwe residents. 

He urged beneficiaries to use their skills to transform their lives and uplift their communities from poverty.

He commended Orange Botswana for their active participation in the Transformation Agenda, urging other companies to come on board. Ends