Bofinet posts P12m pretax profit
Lewanika Timothy | Wednesday October 8, 2025 06:40
On the other hand, its total revenue grew marginally by one percent to P485 million, while operating profit nearly doubled, supported by cost containment measures and new project rollouts.
The parastatal recorded a pretax profit of P12 million during the reporting period, which was better than the P7 million loss it made in the full year 2023.
BoFiNet credited the turnaround to resilience in a tough market marked by falling data prices, delayed payments by customers, and intensifying competition from retail operators and new entrants such as Starlink.
“Despite the pressure, BoFiNet has proven its value as a strategic partner to the government in delivering universal, affordable broadband,” its latest annual statement revealed.
The BoFiNet’s infrastructure now spans over 13,000km of fibre, more than double the 6,000km inherited from BTC in 2013.
The state-owned company is also securing international resilience through its investments in EASSy and WACS submarine cables and new capacity on Google’s Equiano cable.
These moves safeguard Botswana’s global connectivity and reduce risks of international outage.
The 2023/24 financial year also saw BoFiNet complete Phase 1 of the SmartBots Village Connectivity Project, delivering 1,138 free Wi-Fi hotspots across schools, healthcare facilities, and dikgotla.
Additional backbone and local access projects in Sebina–Tutume, Takatokwane–Morwamosu, Oodi–Machaneng, Orapa, Molepolole, Mahalapye, Kanye, and Tlokweng connected dozens of villages.
As a result, hundreds of customers were connected with 500 jobs created in the process, while P165 million was injected into citizen-owned companies
One of BoFiNet’s flagship initiatives, the Digital Delta Data Centre, became operational in November 2024 and is undergoing Tier Certification by the Uptime Institute.
Once launched later this year, it will mark Botswana’s first carrier-neutral data centre, positioning the country as a regional ICT hub.
To balance affordability with financial sustainability, BoFiNet introduced ISP capacity upgrades effective September 2025, reducing per-unit costs by 19.5%.
The savings are expected to trickle down to consumers, making internet services more affordable while ensuring ISPs can scale capacity sustainably
The state-owned telecommunications infrastructure provider, BoFiNet, has incurred maintenance costs in excess of P12 million this past financial year as copper cable theft continues to plague and target the telecoms industry.
Its copper theft losses place it amongst other major victims in the sector, including Botswana Telecommunications Corporation and Botswana Power Corporation, which have also been hemorrhaging millions annually in an attempt to replace and maintain stolen copper lines.