Botswana Fibre Networks (BOFINET) last week launched the commencement of the ICT infrastructure called the National Data Centre (NDC).
The infrastructure which will be built on a 7,000 square metre piece of land started with a feasibility study in 2014/2015 according to BOFINET Chief Executive Officer, Mabua Mabua.
“We made an assessment of the required critical infrastructure that is adequate to support the ICT ecosystem and the economy at large, and we then realized that an open access data centre, which is accessible to all retail telco service providers, on equal basis was missing,” said Mabua.
Mabua said another study was conducted in 2018/19 and that it reaffirmed the need for an open access data centre.
Some of the services and products to be offered by the Centre include cloud services, remote hands, and rack space of different sizes.
“We are looking at completing this facility, ready for service in the 2021/22 financial year and we have already received reservations for space and services,” said Mabua.
Giving a keynote address during the ground-breaking ceremony on Thursday, Minister of Transport and Communications, Thulaganyo Segokgo said while this National Data Centre would certainly not be the first in the country, it would be one of a kind.
“The state-of-the-art facility is Uptime Institute certified and will host at least 400 racks that is a total of 1000 square metres of white space upon completion,” said Segokgo.
Segokgo said data centre infrastructure forms a key part of the country’s competitiveness rankings, and readiness as an economy, adding the facility will place Botswana in a good position to improve her rankings world-wide.
“It will become the strategic heart of Botswana’s networks that will drive Botswana’s Digital Transformation and Smart Bots initiatives, to attract and host major regional and international ICT players such as Microsoft, Google and others.”
The construction of the Centre which is being developed in the Science and Technology Park is being carried out by Zhong Gan Engineering and Construction Company.
