(Ecofin Agency) - The government of Ethiopia will soon build a national data center that is Tier 3 certified, meaning highly resistant to power interruptions and offering 99.982% data access availability. The Ministry of Innovation and Technology has completed the facility’s preliminary design and is now seeking a company for a design-build contract. The related tender will be launched this month, according to Minister Ahmedin Mohammed.

The national data center is expected to be built at the ICT Park, near the Bole Lemi industrial park. It will store and secure all public and private information and statistics. It will serve as the main tool for the e-government solution, offering cloud services, colocation and hosting, to better manage business applications.

Although the country already has many data centers, both private and public, the Minister of Innovation and Technology believes they will not effectively support the country’s digital economy ambition like the new center will do.  “This infrastructure is going to be like no other,” he said.

According to Anteneh Alemu, the deputy commissioner at the Ethiopian Investment Commission, the facility is going to be revolutionary once it is operational.

Let’s however note that the many data centers housed by various public agencies remain useful IT infrastructures for the government, which is considering using some of them for its national data protection plan. Their technical evaluation by a team of experts from the ICT Park, which began almost five months ago, is currently suspended because of the coronavirus.