President Brice Clotaire Oligui Nguema officially unveiled Gabon’s inaugural data center yesterday, a pivotal digital infrastructure developed by ST Digital Data Center Services, located within the Nkok Special Economic Zone. The ceremony also featured the signing of a crucial Memorandum of Understanding between the Ministry of Digital Economy, Digitalization and Innovation and ST Digital, designed to bolster Gabonese startups.
This dual strategic move aims to significantly enhance local data hosting capabilities, strengthen national cybersecurity measures, and accelerate Gabon’s overall digital transformation. Certified as Tier III, ensuring compliance with rigorous international standards, this state-of-the-art facility is set to dramatically improve national data storage capacities, provide robust support for cloud computing initiatives, and serve both government administrations and private enterprises. This landmark project underscores the Head of State’s unwavering commitment to guiding Gabon towards a definitive digital sovereignty.
Under the terms of the partnership, emerging businesses will gain preferential access to a suite of professional services. Selected startups are poised to receive a dedicated virtual machine, 120 GB of SSD storage, 8 GB of RAM, four virtual processors, a public IP address, an SSL certificate, comprehensive technical support, and advantageous pricing structures.
The Ministry will play a key role in identifying eligible beneficiaries, actively promoting local data hosting, and spearheading awareness campaigns focused on cybersecurity. Laïka Mba, the Director General of ST Digital, emphasized the profound significance of this achievement, stating, “Possessing a national data center in Gabon represents far more than a technological triumph; it is a declaration of sovereignty.” She further elaborated, “It offers the sacred assurance that our state secrets, our national archives, our public services, and the personal data of our citizens are no longer reliant on external infrastructures.”
ST Digital is committed to ensuring the highest standards of data security and providing ongoing technical assistance. This collaborative public-private endeavor is expected to foster the creation and hosting of innovative digital solutions entirely within Gabon, thereby cultivating a more dynamic environment for innovation, job creation, and strategic investments.
