The Republic of Congo is gradually making its way toward the complete digitization of its public services. To accelerate the process and reach its goals by 2025, the government is multiplying partnerships with international companies specializing in digital issues.

Canadian company Casimir Network signed Tuesday (Nov.22) a memorandum of understanding to support Congo in its digital transformation.

The MoU was signed by the Congolese Minister of Posts, Telecommunications, and Digital Economy, Léon Juste Ibombo (photo, left), and Jean Michel Casimir (photo, right), CEO of Casimir Network. It provides, among other things, the training of local talent on innovative technologies, the construction and operation of a data center that will host servers for blockchain services, the transfer of knowledge concerning the operation of the data center, and the development of cybersecurity and personal data protection programs. It also plans for support and research, and the development of the African Center for Research in Artificial Intelligence (Caria).

The memorandum aims to “help our partners create and operate the data center here in our country. Indeed, the country of a data center will allow our partners to support and assist us in the operationalization of Caria,” Minister Leon Juste Ibombo said.

Earlier this year, Congo launched an African Center for Research in Artificial Intelligence (Caria) which serves as a framework for in-depth research for students and other researchers on the continent. It is the result of cooperation between the Congolese government and the United Nations Economic Commission for Africa (ECA).  Caria supports other major digital projects underway in the framework of Congo’s digital development plan,  "Congo Digital 2025.”

The agreement between Congo and Casimir Network is expected to take effect in early 2023. This week, a site visit will be organized to verify the location of the future data center. "We hope everything will be finalized and we will launch operations by September 2023," said Jean Michel Casimir.

He added that the data center will be based on blockchain technologies since they are going for an ecological solution. “Congo offers green energy generated by a hydroelectric dam. We were looking for stability and we found it here,” he indicated.  

Samira Njoya