The Zambia Information and Communications Technology Authority (ZICTA) stands at the heart of the nation’s digital economy regulating the ICT, postal, and courier sectors while driving policies that connect citizens, businesses, and institutions.
As the national regulator, ZICTA ensures fair competition, protects consumers, allocates spectrum, and advances the country’s cybersecurity posture. Behind all these functions lies a simple but vital goal, to make sure the customer (the Zambian citizen) is happy.
Yet, even the regulator that enables digital transformation across industries must also transform itself.
By 2016, ZICTA was grappling with aging internal infrastructure. Servers and laptops had become unreliable, engineers were constantly patching systems, and maintaining uptime had become increasingly difficult.
For an organisation tasked with overseeing a fast moving ICT ecosystem, this challenge risked slowing the regulator itself.
In an unexpected twist of history, ZICTA’s own ICT department had played a foundational role in creating what are now INFRATEL Data Centres.
“ZICTA was given a task by the Ministry to operationalise the Zambia National Data Center,” recalls Gary Mukelabai, Manager of ICT Infrastructure at ZICTA. “We worked hand in hand with Chinese engineers and technicians to modify the building, bring in equipment, and set it all up from scratch.”
That project, initiated under a bilateral partnership between Zambia and China, established three sites forming the backbone of the country’s digital infrastructure.
When the Zambia National Data Centre later evolved into INFRATEL, it continued to serve the nation as a premier provider of colocation, cloud, and infrastructure services. For Mukelabai, who had seen the facility built from the ground up, the choice of where to take ZICTA’s systems was obvious.
We saw the equipment that went in. We knew the capabilities,” he explains. “So when our infrastructure started to age, we thought, why keep patching things when INFRATEL already has the right environment to host us?
ZICTA chose to migrate a significant portion of its ICT operations to INFRATEL under an Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS) model. This meant that instead of purchasing and maintaining new hardware, ZICTA could use INFRATEL’s enterprise infrastructure bringing only its own software, configurations, and data.
Some systems were also moved under colocation, where ZICTA’s own servers were physically housed within INFRATEL’s racks to benefit from redundant power, cooling, and connectivity. The transition immediately began reducing internal strain.
It took the pressure off me and my team,” says Mukelabai. “We no longer had to spend sleepless nights wondering what was happening to our equipment. Everything was being monitored by INFRATEL’s team — people we knew and trusted.
For any ICT manager, visibility is everything. Traditionally, Mukelabai’s team preferred to keep infrastructure within sight, literally watching the server lights blink. But as operations moved to INFRATEL’s Data Centre, visibility transformed from physical presence to digital dashboards and proactive alerts.
As a hardcore ICT manager, I like to see where my equipment is,” he says with a smile. “But now, I rely on dashboards and people I can trust. And I do trust the people at INFRATEL.
INFRATEL’s smart hands support service further enhanced operational convenience. The Data Centre’s onsite engineers could perform checks, troubleshooting, and minor interventions on ZICTA’s behalf, reducing downtime and eliminating the need for constant physical visits.
They’re basically our alert system,” explains Mukelabai. “They inform us when things aren’t right, and they’re the first line of response. Only if it’s necessary do I send my engineers over.
Beyond daily operations, ZICTA also makes use of INFRATEL’s infrastructure for data backup and disaster recovery. Critical systems that once sat in what Mukelabai fondly calls “a small server room” at the ZICTA office are now backed up securely at INFRATEL’s Data Centre protected by redundant power, advanced cooling systems, and robust physical security.
I know our systems are safe,” he affirms. “They have redundant power, redundant cooling, and they never run out of fuel. That’s peace of mind for any ICT manager.
This resilience is particularly vital for an institution responsible for national level ICT oversight and cybersecurity. The continuity of ZICTA’s systems is directly tied to the smooth functioning of Zambia’s broader digital ecosystem, from spectrum management to consumer protection.
The partnership between ZICTA and INFRATEL is unique, it’s not just a client vendor relationship, but a continuation of a shared story that began with the establishment of the Zambia National Data Centre itself. What began as a collaboration to build national ICT infrastructure has evolved into a relationship where INFRATEL now provides the very reliability and innovation that ZICTA once helped create.
We built it together, and now we benefit from it,” says Mukelabai. “That’s the full circle of Zambia’s digital transformation.
As Zambia’s ICT landscape continues to expand, with growing data demands, cybersecurity requirements, and new technologies, ZICTA’s partnership with INFRATEL positions it to adapt seamlessly.
Future phases of the collaboration may include enhanced cloud services, software as a service (SaaS), and advanced backup solutions, all underpinned by INFRATEL’s expanding national infrastructure footprint.
If you need Infrastructure as a Service, Software as a Service, or any other cloud services,” concludes Mukelabai, “INFRATEL is the way to go.
Key Takeaways
| Challenge | Aging infrastructure, increasing maintenance costs, and limited resilience. |
| Solution | INFRATEL’s Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS), colocation, and backup services. |
| Results | Improved uptime, reduced maintenance pressure, reliable backups, trusted partnership. |
| Industry | ICT Regulation & Public Sector. |
| Testimonial Source | Gary Mukelabai, Manager ICT Infrastructure, ZICTA. |
The ZICTA INFRATEL partnership reflects Zambia’s progress in building and sustaining its own digital backbone.
For ZICTA, the story is personal, from building the data centre to now benefiting from its power and resilience. And for INFRATEL, it’s a testament to national capability:, infrastructure built in Zambia, by Zambians, for Zambia.
Together, they demonstrate how trust, collaboration, and shared vision can create a future where digital transformation isn’t imported, it’s home grown and proudly Zambian.