The Ministry of Communication and Innovations has requested P10.6 billion for expenditure during the National Development Plan 12 (NDP 12) running from 2025 to 2030, more than half of the funds earmarked for Information Communication Technology (ICT) infrastructure development.
Other funds will be spent on research and development, and detection and disposal of radioactive materials.
Minister of Communications David Tshere says the ministry has already started the journey of digitizing the economy and that the planned investments will strengthen connectivity, enhance productivity, and create new income opportunities.
“It is for this reason that deployment of digital infrastructure will be accelerated to build resilience, capacity and capability as well as security to the existing ICT infrastructure and planned new projects during NDP 12,” Tshere said.
“The outcomes of digitalization envisaged is to achieve efficiency, increased productivity, increased and multiple revenue streams for government, businesses and individuals, and in the process create opportunities for employment creation.”
He outlined a three-pronged approach for nationwide high-speed connectivity under NDP 12, being the National Backbone Layer, Local Access Layer, and the International Layer.
“The National Backbone Layer seeks to deploy optic fibre including the design, installation and commissioning of the optic fiber network for broadband connectivity. It further covers the operations and maintenance of Telecommunications Networks for designated links; path profile surveys and engineering services as well as conducting Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) along the routes,” he said.
Furthermore, the Local Access Layer will be used to continue implementation of the ongoing projects to deploy local access network in villages with a population of over 5000 residents to improve internet access to government facilities and businesses.
“To remain relevant and part of the global community, Government will explore alternative ways of implementing the International Connectivity layer project by enhancing internet capacity and reduce transit costs, ultimately leading to lower internet costs for consumers in Botswana. It involves building international traffic transit routes via our neighbouring countries to connect to undersea cables of which Botswana is part of the consortiums of West Africa Cable System (WACS) and East Africa Submarine System (EASSY)” the minister said.
Some of the funds requested will be spent on the completion of the Tlokweng-Johannesburg fibre route, while new routes of Zimbabwe-Mozambique, and Zambia-Angola will be implemented during the NDP 12 period.
