Huawei Technologies Zambia has said that the country's datacentre will be commercialised soon after its completion early next year, meaning it will be in a position to charge for storing data for private companies and institutions.

The datacentre is being constructed by Huawei Technologies and is part of the Smart Zambia phase project one that will also see the construction of a computer assembly plant at the same site in Lusaka.

The US$75 million project is being implemented by the Zambian government through the Zambia Information and Communications Technology Authority (ZICTA), with funds provided by the Chinese government through a concessional loan.

Huawei Technologies Zambia country director Emilion Ming said "We are building the national data centre and ICT talent training facilities together with the Ministry of Transport and Communications through the Smart Zambia project phase one to allow the government to provide reliable storage, cloud computing and scalable information sharing."

Zambia's Secretary to the Cabinet Dr Rowland Msiska said plans are already underway regarding the second phase of the project.

In this phase Huawei Technologies will also develop Zambia's national broadband system to bolster public service delivery.

"Smart Zambia phase one and two will lead to the national broadband and e-governance system that will improve the utilisation of ICT infrastructure," Msiska said.

He said Smart Zambia phase two will also be financed by China, but did not specify when the next phase will begin or how much it would cost.