Over the past decade Botswana has quietly gone about becoming one of Africa’s most stable and progressive countries with much socio-economic development taking place.

The field of ICT is no different with the newly established Botswana Innovation Hub (BIH) company set to revolutionise the technology sector in that country.

The concept was initiated in 2006 with a presidential directive to diversify the country’s economy.

Subsequently, plans to to start building the tech hub have kicked off for 2013.

“The BIH has a mandate to develop a science and technology park in Gabarone. The facility will provide an attractive location for technology driven and knowledge intensive business to develop and compete in the global market,” explains Dr. Geoffrey Seleka, director of marketing and registration, BIH.

The park will be centrally located near the Sir Seretse Khama international airport and the construction of the first phase of building is set to be completed by 2014. At the same time the BIH is in the process of sourcing both international and local technology companies and startups to take up space in the new park.

Botswana has in recent years begun its emergence as an ICT hub with the cost of broadband slowly being reduced due to government initiatives like the West Africa Cable Systems (WACS) and the Eastern Africa Submarine Cable System (EASSy).

“We are, as a result, enjoying excess bandwidth capacity which has in turn encouraged innovation. Wholesale price have gone down 59% and the regulator, Botswana Telecommunication Authority, has started enforcing it on Mobile Network Operators and Internet Service Providers (ICT),” confirms Seleka.

The BIH has already gone about bringing onboard 12 companies, amongst them Microsoft, who are now operating on the temporary BIH premises.

In the incubation space there are already 12 interested parties all of whom have registered to take part in the future incubation program. In terms of receiving membership the interested party must submit an expression of interest which contains a business plan specifying there are of interest as well as their specific space and incentive requirements.

Applications will be vetted and passed along to the registration committee with specific recommendations and if their applications are successful then the organisation will be issued with a certificate of registration by the ministry of Infrastructure and Technology.

Companies basing themselves in the Science and Technology Park will benefit from the fact that Botswana has no exchange controls and they will also receive a 15% incentivised low tax rate. The BIH also offers a special labour and residence permit exemption scheme for foreign nationals wishing to base themselves in Botswana.

Seleka admits that the initiative faces some tough challenges not least of which is the low private sector participation which impacts on the financial sustainability of the project. “Low participation means that the government must keep financing the losses. We are also faced with issues surrounding a small market to consume innovative products and in some cases the challenge is the low skill sets in specific areas,” says Seleka.

As the development continues to move forward already success stories in the field of innovation have begun to emerge and so heading into the last part of the year the BIH will, in partnership with Microsoft, be launching the iPartnership Program and Developers Bootcamp.

“These are the two projects which are designed to enhance the skills of citizens and surface innovative thinking which have potential to be commercialised. We have also signed a Memorandum of Understanding with Council on Health Research for Development (COHRED) which is meant to promote research and development for health, equity and development in Botswana, the southern African sub-region and Africa in general,” explains an enthusiastic Seleka.