The Namibian government has emphasised its progress in ICT rollout and the benefits to citizens as it advertised the country's appeal to potential investors at the Namibia International Investment Conference in Windhoek recently.

Speaking at the 2016 leg of the Conference this week, Tjekero Tweya, Minister of Information and Communication Technology (MICT) cited some of the progress in his presentation of ICT as a foundation for Namibia's economic prosperity.

"The ICT sector of Namibia is still small but rapidly growing. The last decade a series of legislative processes aimed at promoting ICT in Namibia were put in place such as, Namibian Communication Act, 2009, ICT policy 2009, Telecommunications Policy, Broadcasting Act 1990, Postal policy, and New Licensing framework and the DTT policy. In today's era ICTs are also used as a planning tool that directly influence areas upon which a country can build its economy. The sectors of ICT can, without a doubt generate significant growth and wealth in their own right."

Minister Tweya also reminded investors that Namibia is one of only a handful of African countries - among them Rwanda, Tanzania and Malawi, that have completed the deployment of Digital Terrestrial Television. Neighbouring South Africa, as well as Liberia and Central African Republic, are some those yet to begin the process.

"ICT is a crucial enabler for innovation sustainable socio-economic development and a knowledge based economy as envisaged in vision 2030. MICT is working tirelessly make sure that all Namibians have access to ICT. The ICT Usage sub-index has shown improvements in ICT usage for individual, business and government usage. Namibia's mobile phone network population coverage has increased exponentially to 95% since the 1990s, while subscriptions are recorded at 119.16 per hundred inhabitants. Namibia has successfully implemented the Digital Terrestrial Television (DTT) from analogue to digital television."

Minister Tweya continued to make the case for increased investment in ICT along with a pledge that his department would focus on including more youth in all of its initiatives.

"Without innovation and development, we would not leverage or reach the full potential of ICTs to enable innovation and sustainable development. Key ingredients to innovation include scaled up investment, improved infrastructure, more investment in research and development and improved intellectual property rights. "

Minister Tweya's sentiments echoed those of Namibia's President Hage Gottfried Geingob who delivered the opening address at the start of the investment conference on Tuesday.

"The key drivers of economic growth in Africa are still there despite the slower than average growth forecast. For example, the fact that population sizes are increasing together with urbanisation trends and technology usage means that there are still many opportunities for investment. Furthermore, the rise in the middle class as well as the abundance of natural resources in sub Saharan Africa still remain key drivers for investment."

The PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) 2016 business and investment guide for Namibia launched during the investment conference noted the country's growing focus on improving ICTs.

The guide mentions countrywide broadband access as well as the commissioning of a landing station which will connect the country to the West Africa Cable System (WACS) among the "heavy" investments made into the modernisation and expansion of telecommunications infrastructure and service networks.

The 2016 Invest in Namibia International Investment Conference was organised under the theme under "Promoting Investment for Inclusive Growth and Industrialisation".