Last year, professor Makame Mbarawa announced plans to build a data center in the Kijitonyama suburb of Dar es Salaam’s Kinondoni District.

Now, Tanzania’s Minister for Works, Transport and Communication is complaining about the slow roll-out of the facility.

Ready, steady, slow

Construction on the $93.6 million project started in July 2015, with Mbarawa saying: “This will be the best center for [the] ICT and IT industry across East Africa.”

Even though construction work successfully finished earlier this year, the facility has not opened, prompting the minister to visit the location to tell its operator, Tanzania Telecommunication Company Limited (TTCL), to commence operations.

According to AllAfrica, Mbarawa said TTCL and the ministry’s permanent secretary should immediately check why there was a delay and begin offering services. 75 percent of the facility will be available to private ICT stakeholders to store data, with the remaining 25 percent has been reserved for state uses.

The Kijitonyama data center was constructed with help from Huawei, a company that serves as an ICT development advisor to Tanzania after operating in the country for 18 years.

Africa has seen increasing growth in the data center industry, with a recent report highlighting the potential for further expansion on the continent. It identified Egypt, Kenya, Nigeria and South Africa as leaders in the development of regional data centers.