Botswanan President Mokgweetsi Masisi on Wednesday launched the SmartBots Village Connectivity project, designed to accelerate digital transformation across the southern African country.
Village Connectivity is a SmartBots flagship project that aims to accelerate digital connectivity by developing information and communications technology (ICT) infrastructure in more than 500 villages across Botswana. To assure standardized connectivity and user experience across the country, the project connects public facilities to high-speed internet at set digital connectivity standards.
Speaking during the launch in Maun, Botswana’s fifth-largest town at the heart of the Ngami Land District, Masisi stated that connectivity in realizing digital transformation in Botswana will support the digital evolution of all sectors of the country’s economy.
He emphasized that village connectivity projects drive Botswana’s development aspirations on multiple levels — nationally through Vision 2036, regionally through the 2025 Southern African Development Community Broadband Targets, globally through the United Nations Broadband Commission Targets, and globally through the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development.
The project uses the Universal Access and Services Fund (UASF) to ensure the standardized connectivity of schools in remote and hard-to-reach villages. The UASF is an institutional and funding instrument designed to achieve universal access through monies collected from identified communications service providers.
The initiative’s phase I connected about 1,138 public facilities in 144 villages across all districts of Botswana, covering about 1.6 million Batswana and providing free internet access in hotspots at all of these facilities, with an average of 120,924 daily users, said Masisi.
