09 May 2024

The quantum economic leapfrog that Botswana and the rest of Africa yearn for can be achieved through the employment of digitalisation.

The President, Dr Mokgweetsi Masisi said this during a high-level dialogue on Unlocking Africa’s Digital Potential-Addressing Challenges and Expanding Opportunities at the 16^th US-Africa Business Summit in Dallas, the US on Tuesday. 

President Masisi said Botswana had upon realising the opportunities that lied in digitalisation put in financial resources.

“We have deployed capital through our budget because we prioritise digitalisation. We have set aside an equivalent of over P11 billion (US$818 million) for digitalisation and have partnered with the US Trade Development Agency who have given us credit of over P13 million (US$1 million) in partnership with BoFiNet to expand in particular to rural areas,” he said. 

He added that many such synergies had been established to further enhance connectivity.

Again, he said government had also widened the scope of connectivity via SmartBots, which offered fast free high-speed Internet to the communities so that young people and women could also become part and parcel of the digital economy.

“Tablets have also been made available to schools and incubation centres among them the Botswana Development Innovation Hub, which have been set up with the view to develop capacities and incubate set-ups,” President Masisi said. That and the road infrastructure and state-of-the-art bridges, he said would go a long way in hastening trade, especially with the advent of the African Continental Free Trade Area agreement (AfCFTA), which boosted about 1.3 billion people with a combined GDP of about US$3.4 trillion. 

For her part, Lesotho Vice Prime Minister, Ms Nthomeng Majara said the country was despite a low budget, doing the little it could to maximise digitalisation, especially in the area of education and was also working round the clock to make available capital for start-ups in the digitalisation space.

Even though she said there was still so much work that ought to be done in Lesotho, she took solace in the fact that cybercrime legislation had been enacted to curb untoward practices that came with technological revolution.

US Trade and Development Agency director, Ms Enoh Ebong, called for accessibility to all, saying connectivity with little or no access, would leave out the majority of the many positives that come along with digitalisation.

Cybastion president and chief executive officer, Dr Thierry Wandji highlighted the importance of safety within the digitalisation space. 

Dr Wandji warned that if due care was not taken cybercrime could creep in and cause damage.

IHS Nigeria executive vice president, Mohamad Darwish said excellent as it was in improving lives, digitalisation needed to be funded more so that many talented Africans could derive maximum benefits.

Meanwhile, Corporate Council on Africa board chairperson, Mr John Olajide said in his welcome remarks at the summit that Africa was currently the best place to do business. 

Mr Olajide said the continent was home to six of the 10 fastest-growing economies in the world and had the largest free trade agreement with a market of 1.3 billion people, which would play a more important role in the shift in global supply chains.

President Joao Laurenco of Angola, who is also the First Vice President of the African Union Assembly, called for investors to go all out and invest in Africa so that the continent could realise its potential. ends