Namibia expedites data centre, smart city development

By Alfred Shilongo, Contributor
Johannesburg, 23 Sept 2025
Emma Theofelus, minister of information, communication, and technology, announced the resolutions in a post-cabinet meeting media briefing.
Emma Theofelus, minister of information, communication, and technology, announced the resolutions in a post-cabinet meeting media briefing.

The Namibian government is developing frameworks for the implementation of smart cities, the construction of a public data centre, information and technology collaboration with its neighbour Angola.

These issues dominated last week's cabinet meeting, which was chaired by president Nandi Netumbo-Ndaitwah.

Emma Theofelus, minister of information, communication, and technology, announced the resolutions in a post-cabinet meeting media briefing.

"Cabinet directed the Ministry of ICT (MICT) and the office of the prime minister to finalise the concept note and project proposal for the development of a National and Public Data Centre," she said.

This comes at a time when Namibia's government is pursuing technological sovereignty by establishing data centres.

Last month, prime minister Elijah Ngurare and minister Theofelus undertook a visit to Paratus, a digital infrastructure provider, to review current infrastructure and capacities for protecting national data locally.

Regarding the country's smart city project, Theofelus said: "Cabinet directed MICT and the Ministry of Urban and Rural Development to initiate a legal framework for smart city development, beginning with the City of Windhoek."

Furthermore, the cabinet authorised MICT to engage female founders who are potential beneficiaries of the US$20 million venture capital fund designed to finance small and medium-sized businesses in the ICT industry.

Finally, Theofelus stated that the cabinet had applauded the recent deployment of 5G technology by MTC Namibia, the state-owned telco.

MTC announced the deployment at the end of August, beginning in the capital Windhoek, Swakopmund, and Walvis Bay.

The operator intends to deploy nationwide in the coming months.

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