Israeli company Pangea, which specializes in the digital transformation of government and business services, has been selected by the government of Botswana to continue the African nation’s digital makeover by integrating its eVisa solution. This will allow visitors to Botswana easy online visa-application while cutting off all the time-consuming and frustrating visa checkpoints when entering the county by air or land.
Reducing visa expenses, means better service for incoming travelers
The selection of Pangea by Botswana’s government is seen as a continuous vote of confidence in the Israeli company which has been contracted by the African country to digitize various government services. This latest digital makeover will help alleviate the government’s investment in costs, time, manpower, and paperwork dealing with visitors visa requests and application, but rather allocating the funds to better service incoming travelers instead.
Pangea EVP, general manager of government division Uzy Rozenthal notes that “eVisa will dramatically speed up the entry process in Botswana and will translate into substantial savings in both administration costs and time needed without compromising border security.”
eVisa transfers the entire management of the visa application process to the digital space. The traveler enters the country’s eVisa portal, submits the application and the supporting documents online, pays online, and communicates with the authorities over the internet. If and when the application is approved, the eVisa can be downloaded, printed, brought to the airport, and help both authorities and travelers to minimize queues and mountains of paper-based documentation.
COVID-19 may have a positive effect in Botswana
This is yet another step towards the future for the African nation, as it now joins numerous other countries that deploy the same online eVisa application technology. As the trend continues, embracing the digital transition makes both government’ and travelers’ lives much easier. Especially, as COVID-19 has completely changed the ways the government interacts with tourists. The global pandemic has accelerated the digitization process further reducing the need to go to embassies for visa applications while also limiting the human-to-human interaction at the airports.
“We are in the process of integrating our eVisa solution and expect to have it operational till the end of the year,” explains Rozenthal. By then, it is hoped that the global tourist industry in general and tourism to Botswana in particular, will begin to recover.
The touristic aspect here can’t be overlooked as travel has become sparse nowadays, efforts like these could potentially bring more tourists to the country, Europeans and others looking for an outdoor vacation where keeping distance is part of the game, just like in Botswana’s world-class safaris. Therefore, it’s not out of the question that we may see more countries take advantage of digital transformation services as the one Pangea has been providing to Botswana.
Pangea has been active in Botswana since 2003 when the company installed a digital birth and death registration system which is still in operation today. In 2010, the Israeli company deployed a computerized immigration and citizenship system (ICS) in Botswana. Recently the Botswana government awarded Pangea a contract to modernize the ICS system by installing the latest operating systems and upgrading the software.
Pangea IT was founded in 1995. The company’s areas of specialization include digital identity, digital services, and secure digital solutions. The company’s employees are located in Israel, the U.S., Latin America, and Africa. The company’s R&D division is comprised of experts in AI, big data, data science, algorithms, image processing, and more.
