Maputo, Aug. 3, 2026 (Lusa) - Mozambique's Minister for Communications, Américo Muchanga, on Monday called on universities to lead the digital transformation process and support the country in protecting itself against cyberattacks, after inaugurating a university data centre in Maputo.
«As we roll out more services to society, we also need to build trust, and this trust can only be built if we can protect the information contained therein, protect users and (...) ensure that our country is protected against attacks that may be launched from abroad or even from within,» he said.
The appeal was made by the minister during the inauguration of a data centre at Eduardo Mondlane University (UEM), the country's largest and oldest higher education institution. On the occasion, he called on universities to continue leading the way in education, particularly in areas such as cybersecurity and artificial intelligence.
He also highlighted the central role of universities in education, innovation and the dissemination of knowledge, emphasising the need for their involvement in the digital transformation currently underway in the country: «Commit yourselves to the process of creating the knowledge we need so that digital transformation becomes a reality in our country.» The data centre, housed at the university, features precision air conditioning, integrated environmental monitoring, enhanced security measures, redundant systems and expandability. It is powered by electricity, solar energy and a generator, with the minister calling for the initiative to be rolled out across the country to ensure data security for communities.
«We need to put in place, for example, infrastructure to serve the education sector,» said Muchanga.
The minister also called on universities to take the lead in operationalising the Education and Research Network – a network used to connect educational institutions, known as ‘MoRENet', which is operated from the premises of the Ministry of Communications and Digital Transformation.
«We would like this infrastructure to be managed by the universities, as is the case in other countries, because only in this way will it represent the interests of the educational and research institutions in our country,» he added.
The rector of UEM, Manuel Guilherme Júnior, highlighted the new infrastructure as a foundational platform, as it strengthens hosting capacity, service continuity, system centralisation, cybersecurity foundations and future expansion.
He pointed out, however, that managing it would be a major challenge for the institution: «making full use of it will require continued investment in community-based approaches, interoperability, data governance, digital identity, security – or rather, user training and the modernisation of services».
He called on the university community to safeguard the infrastructure with «responsibility, creativity and a sense of mission», hoping that this would result in «more reliable services, more efficient processes and more competitive research», as well as a better experience for students and staff, and that it would lead to new solutions to the country's challenges.
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