—Executive Director Avers
“Zoodlabs Stands for Quality Service”
—Executive Director Avers
“Zoodlabs is in sixteen countries across the world and we are globally commended for doing good work. Zoodlabs is a quality service provider and we pay Le1.8 million in the form of royalty to the Sierra Leone government every year.”
These were the words of Mahmoud Idriss, Executive Director of Zoodlabs Sierra Leone. He was explaining Zoodlab’s role in Sierra Leone which is managing the sub-sea cable infrastructure, which is crucial for internet traffic.
Speaking at Tuesday’s government press briefing hosted by the Ministry of Information and Civic Education, he further explained that, rumors doing the rounds about Zoodlabs being inefficient and not working according to its contract with the Government of Sierra Leone are not only false, but defamatory. He noted that they already have a certain media institution which has damaged their image and that they are contemplating legal action.
He noted that the amount of energy utilized by Zoodlabs is 1.5 megawatts, adding that if Zoodlabs was to harness this energy from the national grid, it could possibly cripple the national grid.
He explained further that the sea-bed cable which was structured in 2012 is an aging infrastructure but is currently undergoing maintenance to address connectivity issues.
According to him, Zoodlabs has established a new route to South Africa, in addition to existing routes to Paris and Lisbon, to ensure continued internet availability in the country.
On her part, Minister of Communications, Technology and Innovation, Salima Bah emphasized President Bio’s stance that internet and mobile services are basic human rights, not luxuries. The government, alongside private sector partners, has made significant investments in network infrastructure to improve connectivity. This includes the erection of numerous telecom towers and the landing of the Subsea Ace Cable, all aimed at boosting network reliability.
Minister Salima Bah informed the press that she led a delegation to Guinea to establish an inter-connection between the two countries, designed as a contingency measure to ensure network stability in case of outages. The agreement is expected to be signed within three weeks, pending the finalization of technical details, she said.
She further revealed that work is underway to develop a pricing formula for mobile data, similar to the approach used in the fuel industry. This initiative, she noted, aims to ensure fair and transparent pricing for consumers.