Minister of Transport and Communications, Nonofo Molefhi.
The Botswana Fibre Networks Limited (BoFiNet) has officially been launched by the Minister of Transport and Communications, Nonofo Molefhi. The launch was held at the new BoFiNet offices in Gaborone’s New Central Business District, where there was the introduction of the organisation’s brand, and reveal of the highly anticipated new logo and products in addition to the official opening of the BoFiNet offices.
“This new entity is an infrastructure company which will serve as a carrier of carriers, a new development in the history of ICT in Botswana worthy to be celebrated indeed.” He continued, “As a Ministry seeking to optimise efficient use of resources we believed that there was more value to be rendered from BTC Limited’s fibre optic network capacity and the Government-owned international connectivity infrastructure. Ladies and gentlemen, this was the genesis of BoFiNet,” Molefhi said.
BoFiNet is a wholesale provider of telecommunications distributing to retail telecommunication companies already in existence in Botswana such as BTC, Mascom and Orange, amongst others, and does not sell directly to end users. BoFiNet was established in 2012 following Government separation of the incumbent operator, BTC, into two separate organisations: BoFiNet, and BTC Ltd. The latter will be partially privatised once the separation is complete, while BoFiNet is wholly owned by the Botswana Government.
Speaking at the launch, BoFiNet CEO, Mabua Lesego Mabua, made it clear the organisation’s mandate to provide and operate a world class telecommunications backbone network infrastructure. The creation of BoFiNet follows the vision of the Botswana Government through the Ministry of Transport and Communications to establish a Special Purpose Vehicle (SPV) that will become both a national and regional cloud service provider.
In recent years the Botswana Government has supported three significant relevant investments, which will all move to be managed by BoFiNet: Development of the National Fiber Network, in particular in the trans-Kalahari region and metro fibre networks in Gaborone and Francistown, Acquisition of stakes in the EASSy and WACS submarine cables and a dense wavelength division multiplexing (DWDM) system which is designed to use to its full potential the national fibre network (this system is currently being installed and is not yet operational).
“BoFiNet provides an average of at least 10–12 fibre pairs, allowing for maximum efficiency and capability, as compared to the single fibre pair and single wavelength on the Trans-Kalahari ring previously provisioned by BTC. There is also a potential for alternative revenue generation for the Botswana Government through regional transit services and utilization of excess capacity on the International assets. We’re pleased to have officially launched and now look forward to the great things to come out of BoFiNet,” Mabua added.
