MINISTER of Transport and Communication Brian Mushimba says the US$440 million Zambia National Data Centre (ZNDC) will be launched next month as Government prepares to offer services online.
Mr Mushimba, who inspected the works at ZNDC in Lusaka yesterday, was satisfied with the quality of works which are 98 percent complete.
The minister is hopeful that once completed, ZNDC will enable Government to provide quality services to the people.
“This is part of the Smart Zambia phase one project as we move to electronic-government system, which will see Government provide all services online,” he said.
Mr Mushimba also said Government is working on modalities to reduce the cost of information communication technology (ICT) services in the country.
Zambia is one of the countries with the highest cost in ICT services, a situation Government intends to address to make the services available to as many people as possible.
“ICT services unlock a lot of sectors and that is why it is important to make them available to as many people as possible. we want to make it a catalyst to a lot of activities,” he said.
Zambia Information and Communications Technology Authority (ZICTA) director general Margaret Mudenda said ICT is pivotal to a country’s development.
Ms Mudenda said the three-tier data centre will be able to store information for Government as well as private institutions without worrying about losing it.
“The national data centre is one way of preparing for the future, this is one of the latest modes of storing data,” she said.
Meanwhile, ZNDC general manager Garry Mukelebai said the data centre will be down for only 94 minutes in a year.
He assured stakeholders that they will always have access to their data
All well and good. Just don’t use this for tracking Zambians and victimising those with different views to PF.
This was supposed to be Zamtel department. $440 million for a government Internet Cafe. What a waste.
Must be 440million Kwacha.
Long overdue…Well done
But there are so many citizens who do not have electricity with which to power their computers, and they have zilch education and cannot read or write! Even the present day Grade 12 graduates are technically illiterate. I suspect that this is money from some aid sources, and they have to eat and blow it up somewhere! WHY, not even the GRZ offices have connectivity in shabby offices with long worn out floors in most districts of Zambia! Surely, the planners are not living in Zambia among the impoverished citizens!
Wow! 440 MILLION !!!
Just to stop the Zambian Watchdog from reporting Lungu and his PF corruption and stealing!
If this is how much these thieves pay to hide their crimes, how much are they stealing ????