Open Access Data Centres (OADC), the connectivity and Data Centre infrastructure arm of West Indian Ocean Cable Company (WIOCC) has said that the impact of the new forex policy has been felt in their business operations in Nigeria.
The company disclosed this in an interview after a breakfast meeting with chief executives and chief technology officers of banks and organisations in Lagos.
Slawomir Cieslinski, general manager, WIOCC Nigeria, speaking about business operations in the country said the new forex policy has impacted their business operation positively.
“The release of the foreign exchange impacted our businesses a lot. We had some problems in the past when we tried to buy some equipment from our Nigerian vendors and they had to cut in the naira for equipment. We have to evaluate the offers, so we were getting offers from abroad and when you get them from abroad and doing the evaluation, you have to compare apple to apple and you have to convert it to dollars. When you convert to dollars, you have to use the CBN rate which is the official rate.
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“This was disqualifying Nigerian vendors because after converting naira to dollar, they are two times more expensive than the competitors from abroad,” he said
He disclosed that the forex policy has had a positive impact on their business while also impacting them in other areas.
Meanwhile, the firm disclosed commitment to build world-class data centres in Nigeria and across African countries in order to boost data centre infrastructure.
Tunde Coker, chief executive officer of OADC said, “OADC is actively building data centres across Africa. We have taken the burden of organisations in building their own data centres, and we will continue to expand our data centres as the demand increases. Our value proposition is to ensure that businesses that are connected to our data centres, maintain zero downtime in all their operations.”
Cieslinski also added that the presence of WIOCC and OADC will boost connectivity and open access to data centre infrastructure in Nigeria and the rest of Africa.
“The issue of barriers and limitations to connectivity and data centre infrastructure will be over as WIOCC and OADC will continue to provide unlimited connectivity and open access from our data centre facilities.”
