The Communications Regulatory Authorities of Namibia (CRAN) and that of Botswana signed a memorandum of understanding at Swakopmund on Thursday.
The MoU will allow the countries' authorities to collaborate on matters related to cybersecurity, data protection, and roaming data, among others.
The ministers of information of the two sister countries started working on this collaboration about three months ago when ICT Minister Dr. Peya Mushelenga visited Botswana.
"We are doing this for the benefit of the people of our two countries in order to give true meaning to good neighbourliness between our sister republics, so we congratulate BOCRA and CRAN."
The Knowledge and Information Communication Minister of the Republic of Botswana, Thulagano Segokgo, says the agreement stems from the good relations the countries share in many areas of mutual benefit.
"And I am particularly delighted because I think in our discussions, minister and I particularly placed emphasis on roaming rates, but you can see that the agreement that is being signed today has expanded upon the areas of cooperation, and I must commend both of you, CRAN and BOCRA, in essence for interpreting what we had said and broadening this cooperation."
CRAN Chief Executive Officer Emilia Nghikembua signed on behalf of Namibia, while Murphy Setswane signed on BOCRA as the regulatory authorities promise to learn and share good practices.
"And the latest directive that we have received from it is that of collaborative regulation, collaborating not only with other sector regulators but also with sister regulators so that we can push the digital transformation agenda. The world that we live in today is interconnected in so many ways, and the rapid advancement in technology revolutionises the way in which we communicate and transforms society as well as economies across the globe."
Murphy Setswane, BOCRA Director of Business Development, says, "We like to thank our ministers for their visionary leadership in recognising that ICT is the enabler of the economy. Currently, we talk of e-services, e-healthy, and e-education, and as a matter of fact, if you are able to grow the ITC sectors, you will definitely grow by sizeable amounts our GDP in the respective countries."
The MoU will bring about affordable rates for roaming data between the two countries.
They believe the collaboration will enhance communications, trade, and people-to-people relations to benefit both economies.
Among others, Namibia and Botswana have implemented the use of national identity cards when travelling between the two countries.