Engr. Ikechukwu Nnamani, the Chief Executive Officer of Medallion Data Centre, a Digital Realty and Pembani JV has been awarded the Most Innovative Data Centre Personality of the year 2023 at the Titans of Tech Africa Awards.
Declaring Engr. Ikechukwu, the immediate past President of the Association of Telecom Companies of Nigeria (ATCON), the organizer of the event which was held at the prestigious Oriental Hotel in Lagos Friday last week, said driving Medallion Data Centre to the position it is today and his contribution to the growth of the data center ecosystem in Nigeria was the criteria for the award.
The organizer explained that Medallion is a foundational telecommunications infrastructure servicing company focused on providing carrier-neutral critical network infrastructure for use by the industry.
“After a cursory check of the activities of Engr. Ikechukwu Nnamani vis-a-vis Medallion Data Centre and the data center ecosystem in Nigeria by Tech TV intelligence Unit Panel, we are glad to announce that Engr. Ikechukwu Nnamani is the Most Innovative Data Centre Personality of the year 2023,” said Don Pedro Aganbi, Lead Panelist, Tech TV Intelligence Unit.
He explained that selecting the award winners took a four-month-long period, which involved gathering a series of detailed information on KPIs, Innovation, growth strategies and digital compliance.
Speaking further on why Engr. Ikechukwu Nnamani deserved the award, Don Pedro Aganbi posited that Medallion Data Centre, which is driven by him is today the number one go-to facility for fast, efficient, and cost-effective datacenter and connectivity services when time to market and affordability is essential.
He argued that Medallion Data Centre is the chosen datacenter company of choice for the major value-added service providers, and premium-rated operators in Nigeria as well as international companies seeking to do business in Nigeria.
Medallion Data Centre is home to most of the major telecommunication infrastructure in Nigeria including the Internet Exchange Point as all the submarine Cables in Nigeria. It is currently implementing a series of new world-class datacenters within Nigeria and across the West African regions that will boost and digitize the local economy, create jobs, enable the localization of contents by hyperscale digital infrastructure providers, and ensure foreign direct investment into the local economy.
Meanwhile, a visibly surprised Nnamani while receiving the award said the recognition is a boost to work harder for the burgeoning data center space in Nigeria.
“We are happy that the little we are doing is being noticed by stakeholders. We are also happy that we are being seen as the Most Innovative Data Centre Personality of the year 2023. This for us, is a call to work harder,” he declared.
Meanwhile, Engr. Ikechukwu Nnamani has called for a persistent local hosting of content as there is a great push for the development of local content and the hosting of the content in-country for national security reasons and ease of access/support.
Other reasons he called for the localization of critical and sensitive data and the creation of several disaster recovery sites are a result of the recent global cyber-security. He argued that with this in mind, Nigeria needs to have several top-tier data centers spread across the country.
According to him, the current economic situation in the country means that ISPS and other industries cannot afford to host their content in foreign lands where they have to pay in foreign currency. Rather, they should focus on local hosting at Naira-based charges.