20 May 2025

Botswana’s resolve to accelerate its digitalisation process in order to stimulate innovation and foster relations in economic growth and job creation is unwavering.
President Advocate Duma Boko explained government’s unapologetic stand to digital transformation, an area in which Estonia had experience and expertise in, both in the private and public sectors.
“Botswana looks to Estonia for collaborations and exchange of knowledge as well as technical expertise in the digital sector,” President Boko, who is on a three-day State Visit to Estonia, said during a press conference yesterday.
He indicated that the visit was a reciprocal gesture to Estonia’s President Alar Karis’ State Visit to Botswana last year, thus underscored the strong ties that existed between the two nations.
Also important, President Boko said was the shared similarities between Botswana and Estonia, ranging from the smallness of the populace, peace and stability that prevailed between them and had drawn the two nations closer together, resulting in a desire to deepen the relationship already established.
“This relationship, expresses itself in many forms and it is even further nurtured by the fact that Estonia is the leader in digitalisation and the extension of e-services to its people, an area which Botswana is keen to move toward with speed in the near future,” said President Boko.
He said Botswana and Estonia shared deep collaborations in the digitalisation space as testament through the beneficiation of the Botswana Unified Revenue Services from Estonia-based companies in matters of digital revenue collection.
Similarly, he said the SmartBots initiative, which was on its proposition to drive transformation across the economy, was well underway and expected to be strengthened through the found relations with Estonia.
President Boko nonetheless admitted challenges in accessibility with areas of the country been vastly populated, and called for the need to bridge the digital gab within the country to enable the majority of the populace to have access to the Internet and digital services.
Additionally, he noted that it was pleasing to note the commitment of both countries to the rule of law, which was fundamentally situated to achieve human rights-based governances, a course which Botswana firmly believed in.
In this regard, President Boko stated that Botswana appreciated Estonia’s desire to be a member of the leading voice in the human right space at the United Nations (UN) and assured Estonia of Botswana’s support to occupy such role at the UN.
“We know that our support to Estonia at the UN would be based on backing up a country with firm commitment on principles that Botswana also subscribes to,” he said.
With tertiary institutes in Estonia ranked among the best in the world, President Boko also called for educational collaboration and exchange of students and faculties’ programmes between the two countries. ENDS