By 
By Oluwatobi Opusunju
The Managing Director of Rack Centre, Mr. Ayotunde Coker, has tasked the federal government to stay true to its local content crusade by ensuring government data hosted off shore are brought back to Nigeria. Coker who spoke to IT Edge News recently said this was imperative to further grow the country’s economy.
Government has in recent times intensified its local content agenda with presidential Executive Order 3 and 5 to enhance the growth of the economy and reduce dependency on foreign goods and services, especially within public ministries, departments, agencies (MDAs).
But Coker wants the executive orders to impact on the practice by MDAs to have their data hosted locally since local capacity that provides similar services exists. Stressing that off shore hosting in a way undermines national security and heightens the vulnerability of government’s data.
More than $35 billion is deemed to have been sunk into public ICT procurement in the last five years alone. This has further eaten deep into the country’s economy and FOREX.
“A lot of Government’s data is held outside of the country and we need to put that into perspective. Yes, we didn’t have the capability five years ago. But over the last four years we have had Rack Centre and we can deliver that capability and capacity to government.
“So I think it’s time for the government to bring its data back to where it should be. And I think government should host its own data in-country,” said Coker whose company has invested billions to provide a Tier III data services centre in Lagos.
Coker noted that there is a lot of opportunities for government to now continue to patronize in-country data centres like Rack Centre, adding that the possibility of partnering with government bodies to deliver real-time services is higher now than ever as government has no need to invest in its own data centres.
