Airtel Seychelles opens new Tier Three Data Centre |16 July 2021

Airtel Seychelles’ new state-of-the-art Tier Three Data Centre at Persévérance (Photo: Louis Toussaint)

Airtel Seychelles has officially opened the Airtel House, its newly-built state-of-the-art Tier Three Data Centre at Persévérance during a short ceremony late yesterday afternoon.

To kick off the ceremony, Vice-President Ahmed Afif and the managing director of Airtel Seychelles Amadou Dina Mahamat planted two palm trees on the premises.

Vice-President Afif and visiting chief executive of Airtel Africa Raghunath Mandava unveiled the plaque to declare open the centre.

“Since December 1998 when Airtel launched its services in our beautiful country, the company has shown that it is a serious and committed partner in the development of ICT (information communication technology) in Seychelles. The new data centre is in line with the policy of this government to encourage and promote businesses to invest in the latest technology and new services. It also demonstrates the confidence that Airtel has in Seychelles’ economy,” VP Afif stated.

He went on to note that with the Covid-19 pandemic, usage of digital technologies has significantly increased and has been essential towards reducing the impacts of the crisis. Furthermore, the new data centre is expected to contribute towards the digital transformation that the country has embarked on, to support the digital economy as well as the diversification of the country’s economy in general.

“The government appreciates investments in new technology despite the challenges it faced and the efforts required from Airtel to migrate to new infrastructure. I would like to congratulate Airtel on the completion of this state-of-the art infrastructure and wishes the company success and give it the assurance that the government will continue to give the necessary support to encourage further developments in the ICT sector for the benefit of our people,” VP Afif concluded.

VP Afif then joined Mr Mandava and the managing director of Airtel Seychelles Amadou Dina Mahamat in cutting the ribbon to officially open the centre.

Airtel Seychelles has since 1998 been pioneers on the domestic telecoms market, being the first to launch 2G, 3G, 3.75G, 4G and mobile money services in Seychelles.    

In remarks at the start of the ceremony, Mr Dina highlighted the numerous benefits that the centre will bring to the country in terms of improving connectivity with the rest of the world, regardless of Seychelles’ geographical size and location.

“I am proud to say that with this launch, Airtel Seychelles will be among the first in the Indian Ocean region to commercially deploy this cutting-edge facility. With this launch, Seychelles joins the most advanced telecom markets in the world, and marks the beginning of a new chapter in the country’s telecom, technological and connectivity success story,” Mr Dina remarked.

“With this investment by Airtel Seychelles, the country will drastically improve its connectivity to the rest of the world. That includes data, finance, technology and talent. This investment in the digital realm will help the country to surpass its previous constraints of geography and size. While Seychelles may not be the data centre of the world, in order to be part of the data value chain from processing, analytics, storage to security and intellectual property, we need a certain amount of connectivity and a certain number of data centres to be present in the country. So this project is exciting, not just because it is a data storage centre, but it is one that breaks new ground in technology development,” Mr Dina added.

He went on to thank all stakeholders, the government, members of staff for helping them see the momentous project through. Mr Dina thanked the stakeholders particularly for their trust and investment in the country and government and industry regulator for their support and cooperation.

The building has been designed to resist several natural calamities, and features two fully redundant A and B power systems, two independently operated transformers and two separate electrical panels, two generators of 500KV each, two separate cooling systems and a precision controlled fully-redundant air conditioning system.

Also present to witness the opening were Speaker of the National Assembly Roger Mancienne, Attorney General Frank Ally, ministers and Airtel Seychelles board members.

At the end of the ceremony guests were invited to tour the premises and appreciate the modern facilities.

Laura Pillay