Faure Gnassingbé inaugurates Lomé Data Centre, Togo’s first carrier hotel

ITC

Monday, 07 June 2021 16:57

Faure Gnassingbé inaugurates Lomé Data Centre, Togo’s first carrier hotel

(Togo First) - Togo’s first carrier hotel, Lomé Data Centre, was inaugurated on June 4 by President Gnassingbé.

It took two and a half years to build the digital facility. Located in Lomé, over a plot of one hectare, the center will serve to store and secure national data, as well as provide colocation server hosting services to private operators.

“As Togo modernizes and digitizes, platforms are created. These must be hosted in a secure and reliable data center. Lomé Data Centre is a major infrastructure and is of strategic importance,” said Cina Lawson, Minister in charge of the digital economy and digital transformation.

9af64152bd2f89ff4ffece2e18c7c5 L

Built by Cfao Technologies, and Centro, a Togolese company, the project was monitored by APL France, a data center expert. At a cost of CFA1.7 billion, it was financed by the World Bank, via the West African Regional Communications Infrastructure Program, WARCIP-Togo.

Lomé Data Centre is managed and operated by Africa Data Centres (ADC), a subsidiary of Liquid Intelligent Technologies. It is controlled by Société d’Infrastructures Numériques (SIN), a heritage company managing the digital assets of the Togolese state.

"The value of bringing strategic public telecommunications assets together in one entity is to ensure optimized use of the networks for all and to leave no existing network unused," said Attia Byll, Managing Director, INS.

The centre has an administrative block, five server hosting rooms (of 133 m2 each), including four for private operators. Each of the rooms is made up of 36 server bays and is connected by a fiber optic network.

The temperature will be kept low by a cooling circuit. The whole center is powered by a redundant 1 Megawatt primary power source, in addition to two 1000 kVA generators.

“The Lomé Data Center is in the process of being certified by the American Uptime Institute as a Tier 3+ facility,” said Ali-Kpohou Mayéki, coordinator of WARCIP.

Togo, let’s remind, eyes becoming a digital hub by 2025. The country has placed digitalization at the heart of its five-year development plan, and launched last February, a body to protect its cyberspace. In this framework, it is on e-ID Togo, a biometric identification project.

Klétus Situ

REFORMS OVERVIEW

STARTING A BUSINESS (more info)

At the fifteenth position, worldwide, and first in Africa, under the Starting a Business index of the 2020 Doing Business ranking, Togo sustains its reformative dynamics with more reforms….

ENFORCING CONTRACTS (more info)

Compared to some years ago when it was one of the lowest rankers under the Doing Business’ Enforcing Contracts indicator, Togo, leveraging many efforts to improve its business climate, was able to jump significantly on the index in the recent years... .

CONTRACT EXECUTION (more info)

Creation of special chambers of commerce for small debts • Creation of chambers of commerce at the Court of Appeal • Civil and commercial cases now handled by distinct clerks • Establishment of commercial courts in Lomé and Kara • Lawyers and bailiffs now have access to the FORSETI COMMERCIAL platform • A maximum period of 100 days was fixed to settle a commercial dispute .

TRADING ACROSS BORDERS (more info)

In comparison to previous years,Togo has significantly improved its ranking under the“Trading across borders” indicator by adopting multiple reforms that focus mainly on the digitization and reduction in delays, for import and export procedures related to import and export.

In comparison to previous years, Togo has significantly improved its ranking on the “Trading across borders” index by adopting multiple reforms that focus mainly on the digitalization and reduction in delays, for import and export procedures related to import and export.

CONSTRUCTION PERMIT (more info)

After moving from the 133rd to 127th place under the 2020 Doing Business’ construction permit index, Togo intends to reiterate this feat in the coming edition of the global ranking. To this end, it has introduced this year multiple reforms.

GETTING ELECTRICITY (more info)

Over the past two years, Togo’s ranking under the Doing Business’ Getting electricity and water indicator has increased consistently. Owing this performance to multiple reforms aimed at making it easier for businesses to access power and water, Lomé plans to introduce even more reforms this year to keep up its improvements.

REGISTERING A PROPERTY (more info)

Out of all the 'Doing Business’ indicators, Property Registration is where Togo has improved the most since 2018. Indeed, after spending years in the lowest part of this ranking, the country now seeks to beat Rwanda which is the best performer on this index in Africa. To do so, Lomé has been introducing many reforms, with the latest batch implemented this year.

PUBLIC PROCUREMENT (more info)

From professionalization to digitization, through legislative regulations, Togo’s public procurement framework is constantly being modernized. Several reforms have been implemented to improve the sector much to the benefit of the private sector, which is the focus of the National Development Plan.

PAYING TAXES AND DUTIES (more info)

To improve its business environment, Togo introduced some important reforms related to the payment of tax and duties. From the replacement of some taxes to the cancellation of others through exemptions, the country has only one objective: offer the most attractive tax framework to investors and economic operators. To achieve this, the authorities relied on digitization.