Botswana Fibre Networks (BoFiNeT) intends to facilitate low latency connectivity for Angola, Namibia, Zambia and Zimbabwe via its 1 000sqm Tier III datacentre.

According to BoFiNet the datacentre will be operated as a tier 3+ Uptime Institute certified vendor neutral facility open to all carriers, telecommunications companies and service providers.

“With our tier 3+ national datacentre we will be strategically positioned to bring Botswana closer to the world and ensure seamless and efficient business operations,” said Pelani Siwawa-Ndai ,BoFiNet Board Chairperson.

Siwawa-Ndai said the datacentre will leverage BoFiNet’s fibre network infrastructure, while security of business applications located at the Centre will be supported by redundant power and intelligent cooling systems.

BoFiNet CEO Mabua Mabua said the decision to build the Centre follows an assessment of the national infrastructure required to support the ICT ecosystem and the economy completed in 2013/14 and 2018/19.

Mabua said the 2018/19 assessment affirmed the need for an open access datacentre. “The facility will offer a minimum 99.982% availability which only allows for a minimum 94.6 minutes in a year,” adding that the datacentre will have a seven point inspection levels of security with biometric and surveillance systems.

“Customers will be allowed to even cage their racks inside the facility with enhanced security,” he added.

Scheduled to be completed during the 2021/22 financial year, which begins 1 April, the contract to construct the datacentre was awarded to Zhong Gan Engineering and Construction in February 2021 and the company is obliged to do it with 40% citizen contractor’s participation.

“And that shall be monitored closely to ensure we realise the intended citizen empowerment,” said Mabua.

Minister of Transport and Communications Thulagano Segokgo said construction and operation of the datacentre is expected to create at least 273 jobs.