IfG.CC -
Institute for eGovernment

Botswana's Public Procurement and Asset Disposal Board (PPADB) has introduced e-bidding, dovetailed to the Integrated Procurement Management System (IPMS), to address corruption in government tenders.

The e-bidding rollout is part of the second phase of the PPADB's IPMS project, launched in 2013, to facilitate contractor registration nationally.

School libraries in Botswana need data connection to make the transition to open access, a senior lecturer at the University of Botswana said Saturday.

Speaking at the 2017 International School Libraries Day celebration in Francistown, some 430km northeast of the capital, Gaborone, Boemo Jorosi said e-learning and related approaches are key tools to reviving the culture of reading.

It’s a crowning achievement for S. Korea striving to export e-government systems through software consulting services.

Korea IT Consulting, a leading e-government consulting firm in S. Korea, has clinched an e-government EA (Enterprise Architecture) deal from the government of Botswana, a land-locked country situated in southern Africa.

In an official gazette released on September 15 by the Public Procurement and Asset Disposal Board (PPADB), the Botswanan government announced that Korea IT Consulting was selected as the winner of the “Professional Services for the Development of an e-Government Service Oriented Enterprise Architecture” project, initiated by the Ministry of Transport and Communications of Botswana. The project is worth 10 billion won.

In the 2015 Open Data Barometer (ODB) rankings released this week, Botswana fell 23 places down the rankings from position 55 in 2013 to 78.

Safran Identity & Security, through its subsidiary Morpho South Africa, has won a contract with the government of Botswana to upgrade the legacy AFIS (Automated Fingerprint Identification System) platforms into a single, multi-biometric and multi-use new-generation platform.

The Botswana Police Service (BPS) has worked with Safran Identity & Security since 1998.

Botswana estimates it will spend over 500 million pula (about 76 million U.S. dollars) over the next five years in its implementation of the e-government programme.

This was revealed in the country’s National E-Government Strategy document released at the opening of a two-day e-government strategy conference here on Monday.

Open Data initiatives release data that is useful to others and so is rapidly reused. Study of other initiatives has identified certain key datasets which are particularly suitable and valuable for reuse. Open Data requires government to make the non-sensitive data which it collects in the course of its operations available to others as much as possible. The data should be available in “raw”, machine-readable form for reuse for commercial or non-commercial purposes. Open Data is relatively new, but where other governments have already started to do this, there have been benefits in terms of economic growth, innovation and job creation.

Botswana government has reiterated commitment to speed up e-government, implementation.

Assistant minister for presidential affairs and public administration, Philip Makgalemele on Tuesday said government has made tremendous investments and implored key players in ICT to commit to the development

“The e-government initiative is a catalyst to every arm of government and therefore the need for every one of us to take a closer interest,” he said.

Botswana Export Development and Investment Authority (BEDIA) and Singapore Information Communication Technology (ICT) Federation last week signed a memorandum of agreement which will lead to increased knowledge sharing in the ICT field.

According to the spirit of the agreement, Singapore ICT companies will be able to partner with local companies whenever they find opportunities in other African countries.

According to the Public Procurement and Asset Disposal Board (PPADB) the project is expected to solve the architectural problem in achieving seamless eGovernment interoperability and helps in finding a common understanding of e-government and its realisation.

The Botswana Innovation Hub has launched a new TV white spaces (TVWS) pilot project.

Launched in collaboration with several partners - including Microsoft, the Botswana-UPenn Partnership (BUP), Global Broadband Solutions, Vista Life Sciences, BoFiNet, Adaptrum and USAID-NetHope - Project Kgolagano will provide internet connectivity and telemedicine services to local hospitals and clinics, which will enable access to specialised medicine in Gaborone and other locations around the world.

The Minister of Communications, Science and Technology, Pelonomi Venson, said at a Botsnet fifth birthday party that "Botswana has a very good ICT infrastructure but it is not fully utilised".

Botswana is set to repeal the Electoral (Amendment) Act of 2016 that led to the introduction of electronic voting machines.

The Electoral (Amendment) Act has faced stiff resistance from opposition parties.

Acting Minister of Presidential Affairs, Governance and Public Administration Ronald Shamukuni has now published in the Government Gazette (Extraordinary) the Electoral (Amendment (Repeal) Bill of 2019 that he intends to present to Parliament this year to repeal the 2016 Act.

Acting Permanent Secretary in the Ministry of Transport and Communications, Dr Coach Kereteletswe said Wednesday that it is still the Botswana government’s ambition to establish the country as a regional ICT hub for technology facilitated services. Speaking at the ICT conference, Kereteletswe said "our vision still remains of a Botswana where lasting impact on the social, cultural, financial and political activities of our people are created through exploiting the power of technology".

He said Botswana aspired to leverage technology to preserve her democracy by exposing citizens to information that will help them make informed decisions.

While diamond mining has long been a mainstay of Botswana’s economy, the Southern African nation is turning its attention to cutting-edge technologies to help grow and diversify its economy.

This is according to Botswana communications, knowledge and technology minister Thulagano Segokgo, speaking during a high-level media roundtable on the sidelines of MWC Barcelona 2023.

Assistant Minister of Presidential Affairs Phillip Makgalemele on Tuesday said the Botswana government is committed to ensure that as a country “we position ourselves as a regional ICT hub with lasting social, cultural, political and economic impact on our people.”Speaking at an e-government workshop held in Gaborone, Makgalemele said it is not in the distant future that Government will be able to leverage online platforms to provide public services and interact with the people.

“Government has invested in a system where people will access services through a variety of means – through, web, tablets and smart phones and at any time,” the assistant minister said.

According to the 2012/13 budgetary estimates passed by Parliament this week, BTC used its own resources for a sub-project of Nteletsa I under which 197 villages were provided with telecommunications services beginning in 1999. With government having also budgeted the same funds under the Ministry of Transport and Communications' Telecommunications Development purse, BTC's move enabled the transfer of the P100 million towards the e-government project. Figures contained in the estimates suggest the P100 million boost will be utilised within the 2012/13 financial year that begins on April 1. A note accompanying the estimates stresses the importance government has attached to development of ICT facilities, specifically the e-government project.

Botswana’s Minister of Trade and Industry Vincent Seretse on Friday said that the Southern African country is also pursuing access to a West African submarine cable.Speaking at the Global Expo Botswana event hosted in the capital Gaborone, Seretse said that apart from pursuing access to a West African submarine cable, Botswana has invested in the East Africa Submarine Cable System (EASSy), greatly expanding her connectivity capacity to the region.

"The expectation is that over the next 2-3 years there will be expanded, rapid, reliable and cost effective connectivity. This will present a huge opportunity for investment within the ICT sector in Botswana, thus fully exposing the potential of the Business Process Outsourcing (BPO) industry in this country", said Seretse.

“For Botswana to flourish and prosper in the 21st century, we will need to become innovative users of ICT, and have a high performing government that is providing convenient and efficient electronic services to all of our citizens,” said Seretse Khama Ian Khama, President of the Republic of Botswana. “e-Government can help us achieve both of these objectives, and the 2011-2016 Strategy provides us with a pragmatic roadmap for getting there.”

It has been said that the larger populace lack access to services and opportunities largely because of the incompetent bureaucracy. Productivity is said to be low in the civil service. Both micro and macro public sector reforms have been tried by government to improve levels of productivity and/or efficiency and effectiveness.