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Gaborone – Preparations are at an advanced stage for the deployment of eight e-Services to the general public before the end of this month.
Services, aimed at improving the efficiency and quality of services, include vehicle registration, Botswana driving license applications, customary land rights, common law land rights, plant import permits , the sale of veterinary drugs, vaccines, equipment and animal feed, BAITS and National Internship Program.
Speaking in an interview recently, the Minister of Transport and Communications, Mr. Thulagano Segokgo, said that providing services online will improve usability, reduce queues at public offices as well as operational costs. and would improve overall efficiency.
“The government wants to have the biggest impact in reducing queues and, as such, hopefully in mitigating COVID-19,” he said.
The minister said that the eight services to be launched were seen as fruits at hand, with the greatest impact because “the new standard required the use of ICT as a means to improve service delivery in a smart and intelligent way. effective”.
“We have decided to pre-load the delivery of the eight services for now due to financial and infrastructure issues while we work on the remaining services, monitoring the progress of the adoption of the downloaded services,” he said. -he explains.
Minister Segokgo said the adoption of electronic services would be a great achievement for the government as a whole.
“Due to the growing demand for online services, people working remotely from home, home schooling and e-commerce, the automation of government services is coming at a critical time,” he said. .
He said there was a need to offer customers diversity and easily accessible options to help transform the economy.
“As a government, we must leverage the provision of online services to advance the achievement of the Sustainable Development Goals, contribute significantly to an information, competitive and globally informed society in accordance with our Vision 2036 aspirations “, said the Minister.
Like many governments around the world, Botswana is quickly adopting a robust and more efficient business approach of seeking advanced forms of technological solutions and tools that will help citizens conduct business anytime and anywhere. .
Plans are underway to build staff capacity and provide an enabling ICT infrastructure environment to ensure alignment of this transformation.
One of the main efforts is the connection of 200 villages with high-speed and quality Internet connectivity during the coming fiscal year.
Some of the major transformation initiatives the government is currently working on include reengineering processes to remove duplication and reconfiguration of ICT infrastructure to meet the needs of civil servants working from home.
“The aim is to get the whole economy to come online, hopefully, while the government acts as a facilitator to bring the whole economy online,” the minister said. .
A 2016 study on Digital Government Strategies to Transform Public Services conducted by the OECD, of which Botswana is a member, indicates that governments are increasingly required to understand and respond to complex and competing issues, including by providing services tailored to individual needs and aligned with national priorities.
Botswana, along with countries such as Denmark and Sweden featured in the OECD report, believes that digital transformation will play a key role in modernizing public services, increasing the productivity of services and increasing the productivity of services. reduction in labor intensity, as well as an increase in the level of satisfaction and efficiency of services. like increasing openness, trust and commitment to government.
Access to services will be via a SmartBots GovApp mobile application created by a young citizen software developer during last month’s hackathon.
The eight services are the first step for the government to digitize its services. BOPA
Source: BOPA
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