Nigeria’s telecoms regulator has canceled an imminent bid for Tier III Data Centre for local hosting of its website and online apps, citing the COVID-19 pandemic.
Based on common industry standardisation, Tier 3 data centre facility offers dedicated space in a building or group of buildings for computer systems and associated systems.
They can perform repairs without any notable service disruption and have higher fault tolerance, among other features that make them a preferred choice over Tier 1 and 2 data centre standards.
Professor Umar Garba Danbatta, Executive Vice Chairman/CEO, Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) announced the cancellation of the planned national bids for the telecoms regulator’s data centre project.
Executive Vice Chairman/CEO,
Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC)
According to him, NCC is “no longer possible to continue the National Competitive Bidding procurement procedure for this project, due to the COVID-19 pandemic and its attendant restrictions.”
The telecoms regulator explains that it had “published a bid solicitation advertisement in the Leadership and the Nation Newspapers of Monday, March 9, 2020 and the Federal Tenders Journal of Monday, March 9 to Sunday, March 22, 2020 edition, to invite submissions of Expression of Interest (EOI) for the Tier III Data Centre for Local Hosting of NCC Website and Online Applications.”
According to him, “eligible interested owners of Tier III Data Centre Facilities were required, among others, to submit their EOI documents no later than 10:00 a.m. on Wednesday 25th March 2020, at the specified location in the Commission’s Head Office, Abuja, to be followed by public bid opening.”
The NCC chief says that “due to the Federal Government measures to curtail the spread of the COVIS-19 pandemic”, the deadline for bid submission and opening were suspended via advertisements “placed in The Nation and Leadership Newspapers on March 25, 2020.”
Danbatta says that “for the avoidance of doubt, the EOI submissions and planned public opening in respect of this project are hereby cancelled.”
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