Namibia Must Empower IT Leadership

Digital transformation is at the centre of Namibia’s governance, service delivery, and inclusive socio-economic development.

The country’s national development frameworks, from Vision 2030 to the recently launched sixth National Development Plan (NDP6) and the Digital Government Roadmap 2024-2026, reflect this.

These documents speak of a digital future powered by increased internet penetration, cyber resilience, e-governance, and a thriving information and communication technology (ICT) sector. But despite the ambition on paper, there is a critical institutional misalignment in how we treat information technology (IT) in the public sector.

The government continues to conflate ICT and IT. While ICT encompasses policymaking, broadcasting, and communication infrastructure, IT is the engine room: the architects, engineers, developers, analysts, cybersecurity professionals and support staff who build and run the systems on which e-government depends.

Yet, in most ministries and parastatals, IT professionals are still reporting under finance or administration departments, often with little or no influence over strategic planning, budgeting or digital policy execution.

This approach fundamentally undermines the government’s digital transformation ambitions. Digital systems are not add-ons to policy, they are the infrastructure of service delivery itself. E-health platforms, digital civil registration, online tax systems, payment gateways, cybersecurity monitoring – none of these initiatives are possible without IT leadership.

But when IT is treated as a support service rather than a strategic partner, these systems are underfunded, underplanned, and poorly maintained.

Digital transformation is not just about websites and email, it is about systemic reform driven by data, process re-engineering, secure platforms and scalable infrastructure. These require decisions made by people who understand IT deeply and are accountable for its outcomes.

That is why more and more countries are appointing chief information officers (CIOs) at national and institutional level. CIOs sit at the executive table, translating strategy into systems, managing digital risk, ensuring data integrity, and coordinating cross-sectoral digital implementation.

Namibia lacks such formal CIO roles across most of its ministries and government-controlled entities.

This structural challenge is not just technical, it is political and developmental.

Namibia’s own targets demand more empowered IT leadership. The NDP6 calls for an increase in internet access from 53% to 90% by 2030 and for the ICT sector’s contribution to the gross domestic product (GDP) to rise from 1.6% to 4%.

Across the public sector, many strategic meetings take place with no IT professionals present. Budgets are drawn up, procurement plans developed, and policies reviewed without the technical expertise of the very people who will implement and maintain these systems.

This has led to duplicated platforms, fragmented databases, poor interoperability, and wasted public resources. IT needs to sit at the table where the cake is being cut, not just be called in to serve the slices.

As the country invests in digital public infrastructure, data strategies, and integrated service platforms, it must also invest in leadership structures that can deliver them.

Ministries and parastatals should formally introduce CIO positions with clear mandates, executive-level reporting lines, and accountability for digital governance. IT divisions should be elevated out of administrative silos and realigned to strategic roles, where they can shape the systems that carry our national priorities.

Namibia must treat IT not just as a back-office function, but as a pillar of modern governance.

– Timo Neisho

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