The centre (pictured), built by Huawei, is in Blantyre, the country’s second biggest city.
Malawian President Lazarus Chakwera said: “Through this National Data Centre, we can guarantee security information to those we invite to invest in our manufacturing, financial, retail and service sectors, thus making Malawi a location of choice for investors.”
Neither the government nor Huawei have specified the power rating of the data centre.
Chakwera added: “This data centre … will enable the government to cut down costs by enhancing coordination between different projects, and better manage and secure data that is critical for decision making and targeting in the implementation of many programs.”
Gospel Kazako, Minister of Information and Digitalization, said the National Data Centre will enable Malawi to move into a paperless economy, both in the government and private sector.
The National Data Centre is an initiative under the Malawi National Fibre Backbone Project whose phase one was initiated in 2017 to construct 36 sites and 1,386km of aerial optical cables to cover major cities in the country.
