The World Digital Competitiveness Report (WDCR) is an annual comparison of digitisation efforts across three key factors being Knowledge, Technology, and Future Readiness. The WDRC is carried out by the Swiss-based Institute for Management Development (IMD).
Botswana’s score fell from 47.51 out of 100 in 2023 to 46.01 out of 100 in 2024.
Digital competitiveness implies the central role of new technologies in transforming government and business processes as well as how society interacts with these. It thus reflects the adoption of new technologies in providing solutions that lead to long-term value creation.
In Africa, only two countries participated in the WDRC this year with Botswana coming in last after South Africa which is a more digitally savvy economy.
In a statement analysing Botswana’s performance, researchers at the Botswana National Productivity Centre (BNPC) revealed that the country’s performance in the Knowledge factor, which assesses the technical ability to discover, understand and build new technologies, saw an improvement moving from position 52 last year to 49 this year bolstered by increased investment in education.
“Under this factor, Botswana continues to rank first on total public expenditure on education. “Despite this commendable ranking, Botswana ranks low in terms of computer science education index ranked in position 61,” the report revealed
Botswana registered a great decline in the technology factor dropping from position 52 to position 57 of the 67 countries assessed. The main reason for the decline was a notable decline in telecommunication investment despite Botswana being one of the leading investors in this sub-sector.
“Botswana’s ranking in this area fell to 57th in 2024 from being ranked 52nd in 2023, with a score of 44.63 out of 100 in 2024 compared to the score of 48.89 attained in 2023,” the report revealed.
Though the investment in telecommunication dropped in ranking, from being first in 2023 to seventh in 2024, it is still considered one of the best performers under this factor, researchers revealed.
The ease of doing business was another pitfall for Botswana under the technology factor, with the country ranking 64th in 2024 compared to 62nd in 2023.
President Duma Boko in his State of the Nation Address this week, pledged that the country would establish a legal task force which will draft key legal reforms to make Botswana an attractive environment for foreign and domestic investment.
This is, however, not novel as past administrations have made similar efforts, including setting up Cabinet sub-committees on doing business and competitiveness. Whilst the efforts have enjoyed some success, Botswana’s global rankings have stagnated or regressed due to the higher pace of reform in other competing economies.
BNPC researchers also noted that the banking and financial services recorded a significant decline in the WRDC from the country being ranked eighth in 2023 to 50th in 2024. The reason for this significant decline remains unclear and warrants further investigation, according to the BNPC researchers.
The IMD report further highlighted the prevalence of Artificial intelligence and its disruptive effect on global value chains citing worries of its ability to wipe off human labour in some sectors.
