Botswana Telecommunications Corporation (BTC), based in Gaborone, is a telecommunications and Internet service provider in Botswana. It is a telecommunications company that serves the entire country.
Botswana Telecommunications (BTC) has encouraged businesses to comply with the country’s new Data Protection Act.
The legislation came into effect on 15 October 2021, in the Botswana Government Gazette, upon the issuance of the Data Protection Act by the Minister of Presidential Affairs, Governance and Public Administration.
Senwelo Monise, Associate Attorney at Botlhole Law Group, and Lesedi Dingake, Associate at Desai Law Group, confirmed that the Act’s transition period is 12 months from the date of commencement and will automatically end on 15 October 2022, meaning that data controllers, including companies, have to start their compliance journey now.
Aldrin Sivako, the Head of Operations at Botswana Telecommunications Corporation (BTC), mentioned in a webinar on Data Protection and Cloud Services themed “The Importance of Data Protection in the Digital World” Following the newly approved Data Protection Act, the webinar focused on storing data in the cloud.
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Sivako said data protection is another key subject that is crucial in these COVID times because countries and enterprises are in a race to pursue digital transformation initiatives in order to remain relevant and resilient into the future while observing the laws of the countries where they operate, especially laws relating to the protection of personal data.
BTC has invested in cloud solutions for the benefit of its customers who have sensitive data that must be kept within the country, according to Sivako, who also stated that the BTC cloud infrastructure is elastic in storage and processing capacity and is currently in use by several clients in both the private and public sectors.
Cecil Masiga, the Deputy Permanent Secretary – ICT at the Ministry of Transport and Communications, also took part in the webinar and described data protection as the legislative framework for ensuring the privacy of individuals in relation to how their personal data is maintained, transmitted, and stored.
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“Data protection laws regulate the protection of personal data by governmental and non-governmental organisations, and every entity that handles customers’ personal information must familiarise themselves with this piece of legislation as compliance is mandatory,” he added.