Renewable energy to power 500mw data centre in Morocco
The centre will be located in Dakhla, in Western Sahara, Amal El Fallah Seghrouchni told Reuters, without giving details on the timeline or cost.
Several countries are building such centres to ensure that sensitive data can be stored and processed within national borders.
These centres can be owned or operated by state-owned or private companies while ensuring that data remains under the legal jurisdiction of the host country.
Morocco launched its first such centre at the Mohammed VI Polytechnic University. It has been offering cloud hosting services to local public and private organisations since January.
"Through this network of data centres, the kingdom not only asserts its digital sovereignty, but also its ambition to become a regional digital hub serving Africa,' Seghrouchni said.
Morocco plans to invest 11 billion dirhams ($1.22 billion) on its digital modernisation strategy over 2024-2026, which includes artificial intelligence and expanding fibre optic deployment.
All rights reserved. © 2022. Bizcommunity.com Provided by SyndiGate Media Inc. (Syndigate.info).
Hashtags

Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles

Zawya
7 hours ago
- Zawya
Hope for Liberia's youth as country pioneers African Development Bank-financed Youth Entrepreneurship Investment Bank
Program will turn job seekers into job creators – Liberian President Boakai The future of Liberia's youth cannot be left to hustling – Dr. Adesina Liberia has become the first country to launch an African Development Bank Group initiative ( that will help tackle youth unemployment among African youth. President of the Republic of Liberia, Joseph Nyuma Boakai Sr was joined in the capital Monrovia by the Bank Group's President, Dr. Akinwumi A. Adesina for the official launch of the first Youth Entrepreneurship Investment Bank (YEIB) ( on Tuesday 22 July. The Youth Entrepreneurship Investment Banks will promote private sector-led inclusive economic development, by creating entrepreneurship opportunities for young Africans aged 18-35. According to the Bank's Country Focus Report 2025 ( for Liberia, underemployment and informal employment have long undermined the country's ability to harness a key demographic strength. To address these challenges, Liberia's Youth Entrepreneurship Investment Bank is expected to finance 30,000 youth-led businesses, create 120,000 direct and indirect jobs, contribute $80 million to government revenues through taxes, and unlock up to $500 million in additional lending to youth-owned businesses across the country. The Youth Bank is being jointly financed by the African Development Fund—the concessional lending arm of the African Development Bank Group ($15.9 million)—and the Government of Liberia ($1.2 million in in-kind contributions). "[The YEIB] speaks directly to the heart of our future because over sixty percent of our population is under the age of thirty. This program gives hope to our young people by turning them from job seekers into job creators,' said President Boakai. 'It will provide financing, mentorship, and the skills they need to succeed in agriculture, technology, the knowledge based economy, and other emerging sectors.' 'Liberia must not watch as its best assets—its youth—falter,' Adesina said. 'The future of Liberia's youth cannot be left to 'hustling.'' He added that with recruitment ongoing, and licensing expected to be completed shortly, the Liberian YEIB is scheduled to commence operations in early 2026, with a focus on 'critical sectors with immense opportunities for the youth, including agriculture, value addition with agribusiness, digital services, mining and tourism.' Youth entrepreneurship banks have also been approved for Nigeria ( Ethiopia ( and Cote d'Ivoire ( representing a growing commitment to enhancing private sector development through improved financing for entrepreneurs, on a continent where three-quarters of the population are below the age of 35. The Bank has since 1967 invested more than $1.02 billion in 72 projects in Liberia, and as of February 2024, it had an active portfolio of 18 sovereign operations worth $314.77 million, focusing primarily on transport infrastructure, energy development ( and agricultural transformation. These investments include the Mano River Union road network ( connecting Liberia with neighbouring countries, regional power interconnection initiatives, and programs supporting smallholder farmers across the country. The Bank's operations in Liberia are funded through multiple sources, with the African Development Fund—the concessional lending arm of the Bank Group—providing most of the financing, supplemented by the Transition Support Facility ( and various specialized funds including the Nigeria Trust Fund ( Read President Boakai's speech at the YEIB launch here ( Read Dr. Adesina's speech here ( Distributed by APO Group on behalf of African Development Bank Group (AfDB). Media Contacts: Natalie Nkembuh and Tolu Ogunlesi Communication and Media Relations Department media@ About the African Development Bank Group: The African Development Bank Group is Africa's leading development finance institution. It comprises three distinct entities: the African Development Bank (AfDB), the African Development Fund (ADF) and the Nigeria Trust Fund (NTF). Represented in 41 African countries, with an external office in Japan, the Bank contributes to the economic development and social progress of its 54 regional member countries. For more information:

Zawya
9 hours ago
- Zawya
RESPECT Unveiled: Makes it Easy for EdTech Stakeholders to Embrace African Union Development Agency-New Partnership for Africa's Development's (AUDA-NEPAD) Africa EdTech 2030 Vision
RESPECT ™ ( a Digital Public Infrastructure (DPI) for Education, was announced today during the STEMtastic Adventures! Africa symposium. RESPECT was developed by the Spix Foundation to make it easy for Africa's EdTech stakeholders to embrace AUDA NEPAD's Africa EdTech 2030 Vision and Plan ( announced earlier this month. AUDA NEPAD's Vision proposes that, by 2030, "every African student should have access to the world's best interactive digital courseware—developed in Africa by Africans—on smartphones already present in their pockets, households, and/or schools". With today's release of RESPECT Version 1, Africa has gained a multi-year head start over the rest of the world. The United Nations has only this year started talking seriously about the need for a DPI for Education ( Africa has already released it. Africa is already ahead. To accomplish the Vision, Africa need only leverage its new advantage to the hilt. Speaking at the launch, John Kimotho, EdTech Consultant, Spix Foundation and Head of RESPECT Africa Office, said: 'Much of EdTech is pilot-driven and disconnected from education systems, leaving developers without clear growth pathways and teachers with tools that don't last. RESPECT makes it easy for policymakers, educators, and developers, to build solutions that align with real classroom needs and can grow and last.' The launch coincides with AUDA-NEPAD's release of sobering statistics ( only 40% of African primary schools have internet access, an estimated 30 million primary-age children remain out of school, and the continent will need 17 million additional teachers by 2030 just to maintain universal access. Meanwhile, billions in education technology investment have resulted in fragmented, unsustainable pilot projects rather than scalable solutions. 'Africa has a unique opportunity to simultaneously drive access to free localised edtech solutions that can reach all parts of the education ecosystem, even those offline, while making it profitable and sustainable to develop the world's best interactive digital courseware, right here in Africa;' said John Kimotho. 'The system has been failing the innovators, not the other way around, and RESPECT makes it easy for those innovators to deliver the education technology solutions that Africa's children need.' The scale of market fragmentation Recent analysis by the mEducation Alliance ( revealed that developers must navigate different rules, requirements, and procurement protocols in nearly every African country, resulting in what researchers term "small-batch deployment" – a Kenya pilot here, a Senegal district project there, with each requiring complete retooling. The consequence is a paradox: whilst Africa has produced world-class educational technology – from Kenya's classroom management systems to Senegal's Wolof-language XamXam platform serving 1.2 million users – these innovations remain largely isolated within their countries of origin. "Teachers are experiencing 'tool fatigue' from juggling multiple siloed applications with no central access or data integration," notes the mEducation Alliance's 2024 report on digital courseware in low- and middle-income countries. "This discourages adoption, even when individual apps are excellent." Key problems – and solutions AUDA NEPAD's Vision and Plan notes two key problems: (1) the lack of real-time, reliable data about what digital courseware works best for different learners, and (2) barriers to scale including policy, commercial, and technological obstacles. "AUDA-NEPAD observes that if Africa solves these two problems—by making it easy for courseware to generate real-time data for ranking and research, and by lowering policy, technical, and commercial barriers—then market forces will do the rest," according to the Vision and Plan. All RESPECT Compatible™ apps send data on every learner-app interaction to the relevant authority – within the bounds of the jurisdiction's data privacy, security, and sovereignty laws – enabling that authority to implement data-dependent techniques such as Teaching at the Right Level and Structured Pedagogy. This data, federated at the continental level, enables courseware ranking and research. RESPECT lowers the aforementioned policy barriers by implementing AUDA-NEPAD's new Policy Framework for Standards-Based, Vendor-Neutral EdTech, a draft of which was released for public comment today. RESPECT lowers the technical barriers through the implementation of a range of on-device technologies from data compression, web caching, proxy servers, and mesh networking to make it easy for courseware app developers to write a single app that works online, offline, and intermittently online. Likewise, it has early support for systematic text localization and, eventually, curriculum standards mapping, that are expected to provide easy technological fixes for complex scaling problems. Also, RESPECT enforces interoperability through internationally-standardized APIs such as xAPI, OneRoster, and OAuth. RESPECT lowers the commercial barriers by providing all RESPECT Compatible ™ apps for free to all students and intermediaries, while paying the developers and localizers of said apps based on those apps' usage (and later, impact). RESPECT' s revenue, derived from sponsorships, will go primarily to these developers and localizers. Think of it as 'YouTube meets PBS Kids' ( for EdTech apps. Looking ahead "The opportunity is historic, but time is short," concluded Kimotho. "We need to stop lamenting the barriers and start dismantling them systematically." Distributed by APO Group on behalf of Africa Practice Ltd. Note to editors: RESPECT and RESPECT Compatible are trademarks of the Spix Foundation. RESPECT: Full African EdTech 2030: Vision&Plan: mEducation Alliance Report - Leading Perspectives on the State of Digital Courseware in Low Resource Countries: For interviews, please contact: Joslyne Muthoni Africa Practice jmuthoni@ Follow RESPECT: Website: LinkedIn: About RESPECT: RESPECT is an open source digital library for EdTech apps. It makes it easier for educators to discover and use high-quality apps in all settings, while giving developers the platform they need to grow their impact globally. RESPECT sets strong interoperable technical standards, while enabling developers to monetise their tools through a simple sponsor supported revenue model. What RESPECT offers: By aligning incentives across policy, pedagogy, and technology, RESPECT makes it easier to access, build, scale and sustain resilient edtech innovations. At its core, RESPECT connects the needs of developers and educators, supporting high quality, locally contextualised tools that reflect real classroom conditions and align with local languages and curriculum goals. It's about building EdTech that lasts, where it matters most. About AUDA-NEPAD: The African Union Development Agency-New Partnership for Africa's Development (AUDA-NEPAD) is the continental development agency of the African Union, established to coordinate and execute priority regional and continental development projects to promote regional integration towards the accelerated achievement of Agenda 2063. Full African EdTech 2030: Vision&Plan: About STEMtastic Adventures! Africa: STEMtastic Adventures! Africa is hosted by the Centre for Mathematics, Science, and Technology Education in Africa (CEMASTEA) from July 22-25, 2025, bringing together leading thinkers, activists, and implementers to advance STEM education across the continent. mEducation Alliance Report - Leading Perspectives on the State of Digital Courseware in Low Resource Countries:

Zawya
9 hours ago
- Zawya
Morocco, Gambia Pledge to Make Partnership a Model of Inter-African Cooperation
Minister of Foreign Affairs, African Cooperation and Moroccan Expatriates Mr. Nasser Bourita and Minister of Foreign Affairs, International Cooperation and Gambians Abroad Mr. Sering Modou Njie, reiterated on Wednesday in Rabat their countries' shared commitment to making the Morocco-Gambia partnership a model of inter-African cooperation based on values of solidarity and mutual support. During their meeting, the two ministers also praised the strong ties of brotherhood and solidarity uniting the two countries, under the enlightened leadership of His Majesty King Mohammed VI and His Excellency President Adama Barrow. They also discussed various ways to deepen ties between Morocco and The Gambia, and reviewed cooperation between the two countries in areas of common interest at the bilateral, regional, and international levels. Mr. Bourita and Njie also reaffirmed their commitment to exploring new prospects of cooperation in priority areas such as investment, industry, trade, fisheries and renewable energy, health, water, education, infrastructure, and ports. In this regard, Mr. Bourita reiterated Morocco's willingness to contribute to the implementation of The Gambia's National Development Plan 2023-2027, which aims to provide basic social services and promote social and economic development in The Gambia. Njie's visit to Morocco is his first travel abroad since his appointment as Minister of Foreign Affairs, International Cooperation, and Gambians Abroad. Distributed by APO Group on behalf of Kingdom of Morocco - Ministry of Foreign Affairs, African Cooperation and Moroccan Expatriates.