By John Sheka Tarawallie
Zoodlabs has on Wednesday 31st March 2021, briefed journalists and the ICT Parliamentary Committee on its submarine network at the Radisson Blu hotel in Freetown. They also took a tour of the submarine plant.
Zoodlabs is based in Freetown with a satellite office in Fort Lauderdale, FL. Zoodlabs Group is a comprehensive technology and smart utility infrastructure company.
Speaking on the side of Zoodlabs, the Operations Officer, David Kpakima said they are on the pulse of modern technology and digital innovation and that they have monitored their evolution to inform their approaches all to offer an exceptional experience. He added that their commitment to the African continent is driven to bridge the gaps in essential utility delivery experience. Noting that they have aligned their business model and Africa growth strategy to build solutions that will create the launch pad in building smarter communities.
David Kpakima revealed that the Government of Sierra Leone leased the Subsea Fibre Optic Infrastructure to Zoodlabs SL for operations, management and commercialization. He said Zoodlabs will be paying the Government of Sierra Leone a total of $27m for an asset with a net book value of $16m over the period of the lease agreement of 15 years. Adding that Zoodlabs will absorb an additional investment of $12.8m to fully optimize the Subsea Fibre Network and its ancillary infrastructure. He furthered that Zoodlabs will also be paying a tax forecast of above $13.5m including GST, Import Tax, and Corporation Tax and related during the period of the lease agreement.
Giving the key accomplishment within their first 90 days of operations, he revealed that in the first 30 days of the transition period, they were able to reduce the wholesale Internet pricing by more than 50 per cent. He furthered that since the commencement of the transition on the 3rd December 2020, Zoodlabs has contributed a total of SLE 7.3 billion (December 2020 to Feb 2021) of which SLE 2.9 billion is directly related to Sierra Leone Cable (SALCAB) staff salaries, and SLE 4.3 billion related to outstanding suppliers’ payment and Terrestrial Network support. He added that the estimated payout for March is SLE 2.3 billion including board and staff salaries, operations and maintenance of the terrestrial network and related suppliers outstanding payments. He said that Zoodlabs has also committed to payout the end of service benefits for staff at the end of the transition period, total payout relating to staff liabilities including March salary is budgeted at SLE 6 billion, with ad additional SLE 6.3 billion to supplier’s liability totaling SLE 12.3 billion.
The Operations Officer added that they have recently completed the deployment of an additional point of presence in Accra with the capacity increment in their Lisbon and Paris POPs respectively to optimize their network experience and traffic resilience, noting that today Sierra Leone is connected to three International POPs with fully redundant International connectivity circuits. Adding that they have deployed a new data center to host their clients’ equipment safely with an uptime of 100 per cent power supply and 99.99 per cent connectivity service guaranteed with 24 hours Network Operations Centre. He said they have made a significant investment in network stabilization and optimization, purchased equipment to replace outdated ones, modernized the network and stock up spares for hot and cold standby, and replaced the power plants with a next step to go full green before the end of the year. He admonished that their continued network automation and optimization drive informed the deployment of a fully online customer management tool that allows their clients to interact with their NOC 24/7, raise support tickets, and request for bandwidth, check billing and related account details. He furthered that they invested in the deployment of additional business operation platforms to fully automate their workflow, internal processes, and position the business for their next growth phase. He said their senior management team is composed of 80 per cent Sierra Leoneans with a deliberate drive to enhance strong diversity and inclusion.
Talking on their next steps to the road ahead, Mr. Kpakima said Zoodlabs is a consortium member of the 2Africa Cable system and will be deploying an additional Submarine Cable Network worth $36m before the end of 2023/24. Noting that they will be making a significant investment to continuously modernize the network, deploy additional hyper-scale and open access infrastructure that will be a significant enabler in supporting their clients who are the mobile operators and internet service providers to bridge the digital divide and that they believe connectivity and access to the internet should not be a privilege but a fundamental human right. Adding that they are at an early engagement to deploy an additional Subsea cable system to the existing infrastructure that will directly connect Sierra Leone to Ghana, Nigeria and the UK. He said the Subsea network will be integrated to upscale the current network to the first hyper-scale subsea network in the Mano River Union belt, positioning Sierra Leone as the hub for content and international connectivity.
Mr. David Kakuma revealed that in Q4 of 2021, Zoodlabs will be launching the first West Africa Tech and Capacity week and that it is a first of its kind initiative in Sierra Leone that will bring together leading tech companies, investors, innovators, and entrepreneurs within the region to showcase their products and services, hold workshops on the tech landscape in the region and pitch sessions for startups amongst many other activities. He also revealed that they have commenced the deployment of their Human Resource Plan with the aspiration of Positioning Zoodlabs as one of the best places to work, attract and retain the right balance of talents and develop the next generation of business leaders through their learning and development programs which is the Zood Academy they will have devised some of the best salary grades and staff incentive schemes in the market and they will continue to drive HR investment.
In his endnote, Mr. Kpakima said their CSR portfolio, Zood Foundation will be rolled out this year, primarily focusing on Tech, Education, E-Health, Digital Literacy and Human Capital Development which is a key driving force for sustainable development.
Questions from media houses and other stakeholders present were quickly answered to by Young Kpakima and the team from Zoodlabs
