18 Mar 2025

Government Accounting and Budgeting System (GABS), which has been encountering challenges over the past few years has been fixed and is now operating at full capacity, the Minister of Communications and Innovation, Mr David Tshere has said.

Presenting his ministry budget estimates before the Parliamentary Committee of Supply on Tuesday, Mr Tshere said GABS had encountered technical challenges that significantly impacted its performance and thereby disrupting payments across all government ministries, departments and agencies.

“Notwithstanding the above, I am pleased to inform this honourable committee that these challenges were successfully addressed in December 2024. Since then, the GABS has been operating at full capacity, accommodating over 20 000 users without any need for user rationing, which was previously required.
This achievement was made possible through collaboration between the government technical team and Oracle experts,” Mr Tshere said.

Additionally, Mr Tshere informed Parliament that his ministry was undertaking a software upgrade to enhance the stability and efficiency of GABS, and other efforts are underway to assess other critical systems, amongst them the Vehicle Registration and Driver Licensing, to improve their efficacy.

Mr Tshere said government sought to accelerate the enhancement of digital infrastructure, which he said is the basis for industrial development and the transformation of the economy as a whole.

“The outcomes of digitalisation we envisage to achieve are efficiency, increased productivity, increased revenues for government, businesses and individuals, creation of opportunities for all and employment creation,” Mr Tshere said.

After October 2024 general elections, the ministry was redefined from Communications, Knowledge and Technology to Communications and Innovation through the Government Notice No. 742 of 2024, Mr Tshere revealed.

He said their focus has been based on bridging the digital and data divide and achieving universal access to communication services as well as improving Botswana competitiveness and connectivity to the rest of the world as enshrined in the ICT Maitlamo Policy of 2009 and SmartBots Strategy, 2020-2022.

“To achieve meaningful impact, we shall endeavour to digitalise government services and make them accessible everywhere, anywhere and anytime, and catalysing the same in the private sector,” Mr Tshere said.

He revealed that over the years, the primary focus had shifted towards broadband services, and Botswana had performed well with mobile broadband penetration reaching 100 percent, while 95 percent of the population now had access to mobile high-speed broadband.

Also, he explained that government had recognised the need to urgently transform state owned enterprises into high performance organisations, which would entail a review of the institutions to improve their governance and operational efficiency.

Mr Tshere said his ministry oversees five state owned enterprises (SOEs) where government was the sole shareholder. These are Botswana Fibre Networks (BoFiNet), Botswana Post, Botswana Communications Regulatory Authority (BOCRA), Botswana Digital and Innovation Hub (BDIH) and Botswana Institute for Technology Research and Innovation (BITRI).

He said the ministry also had under its ambit, a private company, Botswana Telecommunications Corporations Limited (BTCL) where government has a 51 per cent shareholding.

“My ministry has already started the process of reviewing operations and membership of board of governors for all its SOEs with a view to re-aligning them to the vision of the new government. This process is being conducted in collaboration with Public Enterprises Evaluation and Privatisation Agency (PEEPA) and will be completed by 31st March 2025,” Mr Tshere said.

He further revealed that Botswana Post is in the process of applying for a banking licence, partially fulfilling government’s mandate of improving the quality of life of Batswana and developing an indigenous bank. ENDS