Botswana Sees Improvement in the GCI Ranking
The International Telecommunication Union (ITU) Global Cybersecurity Index 2020 (GCI) ranks Botswana 12th out of 43 African Countries, and 88th out of 182 countries globally. Botswana achieved a score of 0.53 (or 53.05%) for the 2020 Index which is an improvement from 0.44 (44%) attained in 2018.
The GCI is an initiative of the ITU, the UN specialized agency for Information and Communication Technologies (ICT). It measures adherence to cybersecurity commitments by Member States of the ITU across five pillars – Legal measures; Technical measures; Organization measures; Capacity development measures and Cooperation measures. Each of the pillars is scored out of a maximum score of 20. Botswana performed strongly on the Legal, Organizational and Capacity development measures attaining scores of 16.4, 14.16 and 13.23 respectively. The country still needs to improve on the Technical and Cooperation measures.
Botswana’s improvement in GCI ranking follows its approval and implementation of the National Cybersecurity Strategy in October 2020. Pursuant to the implementation of the Strategy, Botswana established the National Computer Incident Response Team (BWCIRT), the National Cybersecurity Risk Assessment (NCRA) of the Critical National Information Infrastructure (CNII) and drafting of the National Cybersecurity Act to enhance its capability in addressing the issues of cybersecurity.
In comparison, the United States of America is the 1st in the ITU GCI ranking, followed by the United Kingdom and Saudi Arabia tied on the 2nd position, while Estonia is ranked 3rd. The Top 13 countries in Africa are Mauritius, Tanzania, Ghana, Nigeria, Kenya, Benin, Rwanda, South Africa, Uganda. Zambia, CĂ´te d’Ivoire, Botswana, and Cameroon. In Southern Africa, Botswana ranks 4th after Mauritius, South Africa, and Zambia.
