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There has been an increase in demand for data and logistics centres due to the mobility issues associated with the Covid-19 pandemic. This statement was made by a construction industry expert, Mr Temitope Runsewe at the ongoing Real Estate Discussions and Awards conference in Lagos on Tuesday.

He said as the world continues to move into an era where the use of technology has become ubiquitous, it is now critical to have facilities that will store the data and information that is required for the smooth running of processes.

Runsewe defined data centres as physical facilities where (open) data can be stored and processed; saying they could be buildings or groups of buildings used to house computer systems and associated components, such as telecommunications and storage systems.

Mr Runsewe; who is the Managing Director of Dutum Company Limited, said; “as the internet continues to make the world a global village; users and businesses demand quick information and will rarely tolerate delays, or latency to the information that they need.

The closer a business is to a data centre, the quicker it will receive the information it needs.” This according to him means that data centres that are close to businesses will have the lowest levels of latency.

The expert stated that though the need for building data centres has risen steadily across the globe, utilization of data centres in Nigeria has not surpassed 30%; adding that about 70% of government MDAs still host data in countries like Israel, Ukraine, UK and the USA despite data localization guidelines in the country.

According to him, Dutum Company Ltd is willing to partner with relevant stakeholders in Nigeria and across Africa to bring data centres closer to places where data is used.

The National Information Technology Development Agency (NITDA) Mandatory Guidelines for Nigerian Content Development in Information and Communications technology (ICT) mandates all Ministries, Departments, and Agencies (MDA) of Nigeria’s federal government to host their websites and other web services on a registered the.gov.ng domain and mandatorily source network and Internet services for which there is the local capacity from local service providers while ensuring that all government data is hosted locally within the country.

However, breaches of these guidelines remain commonplace. According to Runsewe, this puts a lot of pressure on both the public and private sectors in Nigeria to not only focus on enforcing data localization laws but to work together on providing data centres.

Runsewe also pointed out the need for the establishment of more logistics parks, saying they pave the way for other industries like equipment suppliers, construction companies, consultants, and trucking companies. He noted that the establishment of these parks has the added benefit of improving environmental quality by reducing the number of trucks on roads.