Following a number of announcements from other parts of West Africa, Senegal is the latest country in the region to make headlines in the data centre world with the official announcement of plans to migrate all government data and applications to a new government data centre.
The new government data centre is being built in Senegal with the stated aim of ‘guaranteeing Senegalese digital sovereignty’.
The country’s president, Macky Sall, this week commissioned the National Data Centre, to which the Senegalese government has been instructed to migrate all state data and platforms, something the president evidently regards as a matter of urgency. “We have to rapidly repatriate all national data hosted out of the country,” he was quoted as saying at the launch of the new facility.
As well as government agencies, state-owned businesses such as national electricity company Senelec will also be expected to move their data to the centre.
The data centre is located at the Digital Technology Park in the city of Diamniadio. It has a hosting capacity of 500 sqm and will be managed by Senegal’s state IT firm, the State Informatics Agency.
According to the website Data Centre Dynamics, the 46 billion CFA francs ($18.2 million) data centre was financed with a Chinese loan. Huawei provided equipment and technical support. The first phase of the new facility will be open in around six months’ time and offer hosting services to enterprises and other public bodies.
Until now, the website reports, the majority of Senegalese data has been stored outside the country, mainly in the United States and Asia.
