Botswana's Information Technology Landscape
Overview
Domestic Market
ICT Policy
Telecomms
Regulatory
IT Diffusion
E-Business
E-Gov
ICT Production
IT Workforce
IT Geographics
IT Financing
Legal
Analysis
 

E-Government

Ministry of Trade Gaborone

Government's role in IT is still rather limited but highly impressive for the nation and its vigorous efforts to move into the information age. Citizens can use the central goverment portal to locate information about:

  • The History of the Nation
  • Key Statistics and Census Information
  • Charter and Activities of each ministry
  • Individuals with key roles in the goverment and their contacts
  • Disputes and the positions taken by the government
  • Speeches, Minutes and Presentations to Parliament by government officials

The nature of the interaction with goverment is mainly informational. There are few instances where information or forms can be downloaded or submitted to the government for storage and analysis.

National ID System

Botswana has a national ID system. It was the first country in the SADC to develop a national ID system with Automatic Fingerprint Identification System (AFIS). The card, called "Omang", has a number of security features including :

  • Watermarks
  • Serial Numbers

The identity information is stored centrally by the National Registration office, with a variety of checks on the submitted data to verify the card information. Turnaround time ranges from 2 hours to 24 hours for a card. In the future, the system will probably be tied to payment and passport production systems(11).

E-Voting

Botswana does not have an E-voting system, but is well on tis way to developing a system through having a central citizen registry.