Africa-Press – Lesotho. The SmartBots Village Connectivity Project is aimed at accelerating digital connectivity by developing state of the art Information, Communications and Technology (ICT) infrastructure in over 500 villages.
The intention is to take everyone on board in implementing the digital transformation agenda, which will aid the country in moving from a resource-based economy towards a knowledge- based one through consistent and user friendly ICT services.
Speaking in an interview recently, the Presidential Advisor on ICT, Professor Vasilis Koulolias explained that the Village Connectivity Project was one of the approximately 378 SmartBots projects.
The connectivity project, which will be launched in Maun on Wednesday, is meant to connect public facilities to high-speed internet to improve service delivery across the country.
The SmartBots initiative, he said, consisted of six different work streams, which included transformation of the public sector, re-tooling of the public service, monitoring and evaluation of the public sector performance, building of Maun Science Park, bringing technology in the agricultural sector as well as building bio-technology industry and building centres of excellence.
“We have over 2.3 million people, which is our true market and within this market, if we are not connected, the market is even smaller. So, through connectivity you are able to have small entrepreneurs access other world markets as well,” he added.
Batswana, he said, also utilised the initiative for learning and healthcare as well as medical purposes, adding that the infrastructure was also ushering the country into digital health.
Prof. Koulolias said the rollout of the project was implemented in a phased manner, adding that the first phase cost government P234 million. The phase included 134 villages and 1 133 facilities, translating to over 480 000 Batswana connecting to Internet free of charge.
SmartBots access points are dikgotla, schools, libraries and clinics. Currently, Prof. Koulolias said over 150 users accessed the hotspots around the villages for various services on a daily basis.
For example, in Francistown and Maun, about 16 000 and 14 000 citizens, respectively, were utilising the service. The second phase of the project, he said, would cover the remaining areas to reach over 500 villages.
Once complete, the initiative will benefit over 1.6 million people or 56 per cent of Batswana with free Internet access. Furthermore, Prof. Koulolias explained that ‘this is going to save P3.5 billion because before this initiative started, we were paying between P250 to P500, for one mega BPS of connectivity.
“Today, we are paying between P13 to P17. We’ve utilised international networks. So, a lot of these funds can go to research and this is something we are talking about”.
To achieve this mandate, he said SmartBots was working closely with government ministries and other partners such as the United Nations International Children’s Emergency Fund and academic institutions, around the world.
Additionally, he said through the Botswana Research and Education Network (BotsREN), operating in eight universities, they were connecting such institutions to build the national research and educational framework. Through BotsREN, Prof. Koulolias said, ‘we also connect to 17 English speaking countries and researchers.’
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