FG to enforce local data hosting in Nigeria

The Acting Director General of the National Information Technology Development Agency (NITDA), Dr Vincent Olatunji, has restated government’s commitment that data generated in the country would be hosted locally within the country.
Speaking when he visited Rack Centre, the Nigeria-based Tier lll Data Centre at Ikeja, Lagos, he said:  “We will do everything   within our powers to ensure that the Nigerian government policy on local hosting of government data in the country is fully implemented.”
Dr Olatunji who was shown round the facility by Mr Ayotunde Coker, Managing Director of Rack Centre, said it was necessary that all efforts be made in conjunction with the office of the local content to support viable companies like Rack Centre: “this facility surpasses every other data centre that I have visited inside and outside the country and we need to have all hands on deck to develop the ICT sector considering its impact on all the other sectors of the economy.”
Mr Coker said:  “We are delighted that the Acting DG acknowledges the quality of Rack Centre in comparison to other places he has visited, even in more advanced economies.  Rack Centre is the only truly carrier neutral data centre and the best connected in Africa.”
NITDA was created in 2001 to implement the Nigerian Information Policy and   to coordinate general IT development in the country and to create a framework for the planning, research, development and standardisation, application, coordination, monitoring, evaluation and registration of information technology, practices and systems in Nigeria.
Rack Centre is 100% owned by Jagal, a Nigerian conglomerate holding that operates leading energy businesses and manages a diverse portfolio of investments. Rack Centre, is a state-of-the-art, Tier III Design Certified data centre offering carrier-neutral colocation services.  The data centre provides over 6,000sqm (65,000sqft) of energy efficient and secure data centre space. The technology invested provides clients guaranteed levels of uptime, power and service availability. Co-locating within Rack Centre allows companies to avoid fixed infrastructure investments and to leave the growing complexity of managing power and environmental issues to specialists.