Critical information technology (IT) infrastructure company BAIP completed the deployment of critical IT infrastructure as well as data migration in the Burundi Reserve Bank (BRB) for 2.45 million USD and started implementing a 5 years’ maintenance contract, worth more than 0.25 million USD.

„This project is important because we implement more infrastructure projects in East Africa and we feel social responsibility to contribute to the business climate improvement in this region. The applied solution provides extensive technological capacity for the Burundi Reserve Bank to build transparent financial system as well as deploy and develop more modern, fast and safe electronic banking services for businesses and residents“,- commented Gytis Umantas, the CEO of BAIP.

The critical IT infrastructure designed and implemented at the BRB serves as a platform on which the national payment and settlement system is being deployed. There is also capacity for the development of a range of e-services and their management systems as well as applications for the data exchange, financial risk management, and other e-services between the Central Bank and the financial system as well as other market participants.

During the project, hardware and software solutions were delivered, a virtualization platform was provided, centralized server and workplace management was introduced, data backup and emergency data recovery, security solutions were deployed, personnel of the IT Department of the Central Bank was trained, critical IT infrastructure maintenance and management experience was transferred, and ITIL standard-based procedures were implemented.

Burundi Financial and private sector development project, which is partly financed by the World Bank International Development Association, since 2014 has been implemented by BAIP together with other INVL Technology AB controlled companies – Norway Registers Development AS, Norway Registers Development East Africa Ltd and NRD CS. The project is implemented in three sites: the main Data Centre at the Head Office of the Central Bank of Burundi in Bujumbura, a Disaster Recovery Center in Ngozi branch and a branch in Gitega – more than 500 workplaces overall. The Disaster Recovery Center will be able to ensure system resilience and provide availability within hours. Despite the power supply and connectivity limitations, 99.95% reliability of all BRB systems and functioning of critical business applications is expected.