Minister of Communications and Innovation, David Tshere, says he plans to further amend the Data Protection Act to compel all businesses in Botswana to store their data in the country.
He was speaking this morning at the launch of Bofinet’s Delta Digital Data Centre in Gaborone.
“I want the Act to compel businesses operating in Botswana to store their data in Botswana. This is the data sovereignty of the people. “There is absolutely no reason for any businesses in Botswana to still be storing its data outside Botswana when we have a Tier 3 certified data center that can accommodate your needs,” he said.
Plans to require all data produced in the country to be stored in-country, have been on the cards for a while. The Data Protection Act that came into effect in January was initially intended to contain such provisions.
The current law allows the transfer of data outside the country with limitations on the external countries approved to host as well as a requirement that a copy of the data remains in Botswana.
The new data centre enables secure storage, web hosting, internet exchange plans, the running of essential businesses as well as government services and complex applications such as artificial intelligence, internet of things and cloud computing.
Data centres are a key priority across the globe, as they house critical infrastructure for the internet and the digital economy, providing secure and reliable storage as well as processing for vast amounts of data. Major corporations such as Meta and others involved in the Artificial Intelligence race, are scrambling to set up increasingly larger data centres to support the digital economy.
Tshere further said government intends to migrate all government services currently housed at the Department of Shared Digital Services to the new centre.
