ICT Ministry plans big

The Ministry of Information Communication technology is promising to provide the entire nation with cellphone coverage in 18 months as part of its efforts to provide adequate, timely, relevant, truthful and regular information.
During the budget vote speech for his department in parliament this week, Hon.Tjekero Tweya, said that N$494 980 000 for the 2016/17 financial year is allocated for the government mouthpiece with a 14% difference from the previous year’s budget share.
An amount of N$13 072 000 is proposed under this programme for Institutional Policy and Information Technology Infrastructure development facilitation.
In contributing to President Hage Geingob’s Harambee Prosperity Plan, Tweya said the ICT sector will strive to ensure that modern and reliable ICT infrastructure network and services will be in place for socio-economic development.
“The Ministry of Information and Communication Technology is working very hard for our society as they cannot do without new technologies.” The charismatic Tweya said, adding that the local media industry continues to grow, thanks to the conducive environment created by our Government.
The Communications Regulatory Authority of Namibia (CRAN) is set to help with the telecommunication scene change by setting up a legal frame work in technological revolution in the country by way of ensuring that only approved gadgets find their way into the country.
“.. we do not allow any technology with harmful effects to our lives being dumped in Namibia in the form of donations, cheaper offerings or any other sugar coated arrangements”, Tweya said.
The National Telecommunication Company witnessed improvements in the cash flow despite challenges, collecting over N$ 1,5 billion, an indication, Tweya said, that the ailing parastatal continues to strive for improved network coverage and service delivery to all. However, the company is still challenged by strategic risks, poor service delivery, theft and vandalism to fix infrastructure and the ongoing weakening exchange rate.
Even so, the Company intends to reduce service order backlog including fault order that resulted from the implementation of a new billing system installed in 2013.
Telecom will also upgrade international link capacities to provide access to higher bandwidth capacities, enable high speed connections to the rest of the world.