About Us |13 March 2013

 Nisa and Seychelles Nation history 

The National Information Services Agency (Nisa) came into existence on May 23, 2010 when the National Assembly approved the legislation for the setting up of the information agency.

A corporate body aiming for financial autonomy, Nisa’s main function is to publish the Seychelles Nation newspaper. 

The Nisa Act states that Nisa will provide information services in an efficient, objective, impartial and cost-effective manner to the public and state institutions.

Although its main function is to produce the Seychelles Nation newspaper and other publications, Nisa also provides support to the printing and publishing industries, using state-of-the-art technology.

This allows it to contribute to the development of the press section in mass media in Seychelles. Seychelles Nation, the publishing arm of Nisa, is an established information outlet for the government, national institutions, the private sector and public in general.

Part of the mission of Nisa is to contribute to national development and nation-building.

Commenting on the formation of Nisa, President James Michel said: “It is another big step in the development of a reliable and sustainable information service to the public. It is a major public service provider and there is the need to render its operations and functions more efficient.”

The President, who holds the portfolio responsibility for information, explained that there was clearly a need to have more pages for articles and advertising.

“There were budgetary constraints but the successful economic reform has given us the perfect opportunity to create a corporate body for the cost-effective production of the Seychelles Nation and provision of other information services to both government and the public,” added the President.

“At this time of big changes, I wish to thank the staff at Seychelles Nation for their dedication and hard work. Nisa is a big, but exciting challenge. It ushers in an entrepreneurial working environment. It will have its own bank account and be responsible for its revenue generation and financing. Nisa empowers staff to build their new organisation into a business success,” the President said.

President Michel appointed Merline Volcere as the chief executive officer. Until her appointment as Nisa head, Ms Volcere, who has over 30 years experience in public administration, was the director general for administration in the President’s Office.

Robert André was appointed director and editor of Seychelles Nation and the posts of assistant directors were taken up by Gerard Govinden and Marie-Anne Lepathy.

The five-member board of directors responsible for the agency’s policy and control comprised Rene Morel (then principal secretary, Department of Information and Public Relations) as chairman, Deacon Louis Agathine, Damien Thesee (Ministry of Finance), Sebastien Pillay (University of Seychelles) and Myrna Bonnelame (private sector) as members.  

On May 5, 2013, President Michel appointed a new board of directors for a period of two years.

The board is chaired by René Morel, and the other members are Lena Desaubin, Deacon Louis Agathine (vice-chairman after being elected by the members), Brenda Bastienne and Barbara Kilindo. 

President Michel appointed Myrna Bonnelame as the deputy chief executive of the financially autonomous agency on May 13, 2013.

Gerard Govinden became the new director and editor of the Seychelles Nation, replacing Robert André, who became the editorial consultant.

Marie-Anne Lepathy was appointed the deputy director of the Seychelles Nation.

 Coloured weekday Seychelles Nation

 Since the setting up of Nisa, a lot has been done to improve the quality of the Seychelles Nation newspaper.

With a circulation of 3,500 during weekdays and 4,000 during weekends, the newspaper underwent a complete overhaul and on January 5, 2011, the weekday issue was increased to 20 pages and it had a new modern, attractive and easy to read look.

Specialised sections like Up Close, Life & Style, Agrinews, Environment, Education, Business and Science & Technology were introduced.

With the mission to informing and correctly educating the public, the newspaper has since then continued to develop and improve on the quality and variety of information it gives its readers and has over the years become very popular.

A new-look Seychelles Nation weekday newspaper debuted on Monday November 5, 2012 with the usual 20 pages – four of those in colour.

The coloured pages are 1, 2, 19 and 20 during weekdays. While the cover page carries the lead story of the day, there are coloured adverts of different sizes on pages 2, 19 and 20.

This necessitated some slight changes in the numbering of the pages of the weekday issues. The number of national news pages increased from four to five and now feature on pages 1, 3, 4, 5 and 6.

The specialised sections like Up Close, Life & Style, Environment, Education, Business and Science & Technology are now on pages 7 and 8. The international news are on page 16, while the two sports pages are 17 and 18.

There are 11 pages of black and white advertisements and those are on pages 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14 and 15, plus four inserted pages labelled I, II, III and IV.

“Our aim is to continuously upgrade the newspaper by injecting more style and colour into our products, thus giving our readers value for money,” said then chief editor Robert André about the redesign.

"We are making a real investment in the Seychelles Nation newspaper, and putting a major focus on reinvigorating the value of print media," added Mr André.

Despite going colour during weekdays, the Seychelles Nation still cost R5.

Covering national, regional, sports and international news, the Seychelles Nation also has a weekend edition called Seychelles Weekend Nation and is published on Saturdays. It has 24 pages.

The history of the now Seychelles Nation newspaper dates back to the 1920s. Between 1926 and 1929, the government started publishing a daily leaflet called Reuters' Telegrams and Advertisers. In 1942, the name changed to Government Bulletin and 19 years later (in 1961) it was called Seychelles Bulletin. The newspaper kept this name until the day of independence – June 29, 1976 – when it became Nation. It was on January 4, 1984 that it became Seychelles Nation.

From four pages when it was called Seychelles Bulletin, Nation increased to six pages in 1976. From a evening edition, Nation changed to a morning one and the first morning edition of Nation came out on November 19, 1979. It also became thicker with eight pages from Monday to Friday and 12 pages on Saturdays.

In 1982, the weekday issue increased to 10 pages and the weekend edition to 16 pages. In 1990, four more pages were added to the weekend newspaper to become 20 pages.

Nation moved to its existing location on March 12, 1994 and acquired state-of-the-art technology. The first colour issue of the Seychelles Weekend Nation was printed on December 30, 1995.

Meanwhile, the newspaper’s website – www.nation.sc – is updated every morning.

NISA organisation structure

 The Seychelles NATION newspaper subscription rates