Telecom Namibia is strengthening collaboration with government institutions to advance digital transformation and connectivity across the public sector.

A two-day annual stakeholders' engagement between Telecom Namibia and government offices, ministries, and agencies is underway in Swakopmund.

Telecom Namibia's Chief Executive Officer, Stanley Shanapinda, said the state-owned company is using the platform to reset its relationship with the government and review how the company provides services.

Dr. Shanapinda highlighted bandwidth limitations as one of the main challenges to service provision.

"We are looking at how we can upgrade and modernise some of the systems that ministries are using so that they can make full use of the services available to them. One of the key success factors is the government's dedicated capacity on the West Africa Cable System. That facility is currently underutilised, and we want to engage the Office of the Prime Minister specifically on how all government ministries' traffic can be routed through this available network. This can also help reduce costs in terms of internet services for the government."

Through the platform, Telecom Namibia and the government aim to identify ways to address challenges experienced by rural offices.

"One of the key challenges for those agencies is their reliance on outdated technology such as WiMAX. We need to discuss how we can roll out modern infrastructure, such as fibre services. We know that these are costly, but if we work together with offices located in rural and regional areas, we can come up with effective solutions to ensure reliable connectivity and modernise their infrastructure."

Dr. Shanapinda indicated that Telecom Namibia takes accountability for some of the service disruptions and challenges faced by government stakeholders, but said the event provides an opportunity to co-create solutions to these problems.