Botswana

Name: Botswana
Address: BW

Botswana opened a state-owned national data centre in late 2025, and its minister has said he wants the Data Protection Act amended to require in-country storage.

The Data Protection Act 2024, enacted on 29 October 2024, repealed an earlier 2018 Act that never took effect, and the Information and Data Protection Commission is the regulator. Foreign controllers processing Botswana residents' data must appoint a representative in the country. The Digital Delta Data Centre in Gaborone, operated by BoFiNet, was reported as launched in late 2025. On 25 November 2025 a minister said he wanted the Act amended to make businesses store data in Botswana; this was a stated intention, not a law.

AI policy and activity

No AI law or national compute programme was found in the pages read.

Power and grid

No grid or power capacity information for the Gaborone data centre was found in the pages read.

Data centres and compute

Data centres and compute
Site	Where	Status	Notes and source
Digital Delta Data Centre BoFiNet (government-owned)	Gaborone	Operating	Reported. DCD describes a Tier III facility of 1,000 square metres with 400 racks, launched on 3 December 2025; Ecofin reports an inauguration on 25 November 2025. The two sources differ on the date. No power capacity in MW was stated. (source)

Rules and programmes

Rules and programmes
Instrument	Kind	Status	What it does
Data Protection Act 2024 Read the cited source	Law	In force	Reported. CIPIT (Strathmore University) says the Act was enacted on 29 October 2024 and repeals the 2018 Act, creates data protection and access to information divisions in the Commission, requires impact assessments for high-risk processing and 72-hour breach notification, and requires foreign controllers to appoint a local representative. Your Botswana (below) gives an effective date of January 2025; we did not confirm it from the Act, so it is left null.
Proposed amendment to require in-country data storage Read the cited source	Policy	Stated	Reported. Dated 25 November 2025: the minister said he wants the Act to compel businesses operating in Botswana to store data there. The report says the current Act permits international transfers with a copy kept in country and that government services are to move to the new data centre. No bill was seen.

Checked on 3 October 2026 and due for review by 1 January 2027. Many sources are trade press or law-firm summaries rather than official texts, and statuses such as reported or unconfirmed are shown as the source gives them. This is a summary, not legal advice. If something is wrong or out of date, tell us.

Cite this page

ComputeFinder. (2026, October 3). Botswana: AI and compute. ComputeFinder. Retrieved November 14, 2026, from https://computefinder.net/countries/botswana

BibTeX

@misc{computefinder_countries_botswana,
  title        = {Botswana: AI and compute},
  author       = {{ComputeFinder}},
  year         = {2026},
  howpublished = {\url{https://computefinder.net/entity/cf-ctry-0097}},
  number       = {cf-ctry-0097},
  note         = {Page last checked 3 October 2026. Retrieved 14 November 2026.}
}

Stable ID: cf-ctry-0097. Permanent link: https://computefinder.net/entity/cf-ctry-0097. It keeps working if this page moves.

Page link: https://computefinder.net/countries/botswana. Page last checked 3 October 2026. Retrieved 14 November 2026. Cite the provider or the primary source for any fact you rely on.

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