Seychelles plans to keep its government’s digital services on a sovereign cloud inside the country, spread across 2 datacentres.
The Cabinet, chaired by Vice-President Sebastien Pillay, approved the plan on Wednesday 28 October 2026, according to a statement from State House Seychelles distributed by APO Group on 29 October. The same meeting approved a national Digital & AI Strategy 2026–2031.
A national strategy and a committee to run it
Cabinet approved the Seychelles Digital & AI Strategy 2026–2031 as the national framework for digital and AI transformation through 2031. The statement says it will support digital public services, economic diversification, better connectivity, digital and AI skills, and stronger cybersecurity and digital trust.
Cabinet also approved an Inter-Ministerial Digital and AI Coordination Committee, chaired by the minister responsible for ICT. Ministries will name focal points to support coordinated implementation.
A sovereign government cloud
The larger infrastructure decision is the Government Cloud and Datacenter Project. It will create a sovereign, in-country Government Cloud supported by 2 geographically separated datacentres, which the statement says will strengthen the security, resilience and continuity of government digital services.
The government also wants less reliance on commercial and overseas infrastructure, and local cloud and AI computing capacity. Cabinet approved a 2-phase roadmap: Phase 1 covers the foundational Government Cloud and the primary datacentre, and Phase 2 adds the secondary datacentre and expands cloud and AI capabilities.
What the statement does not say
The statement gives no budget, funding source, supplier, site, capacity or dates for either phase. It also does not say which government systems would move first.
Seychelles is not alone in pulling data closer to home. In Nigeria, a Central Bank circular requires payment transaction data generated in the country to be stored there from 1 January 2027, a deadline TelCables Nigeria discussed in a Q&A and a guest column on local cloud and digital sovereignty examined from the operator’s side.
Cabinet also endorsed the report referencing the Seychelles National Qualifications Framework to the African Continental Qualifications Framework. The statement says the 10-level framework is comparable with the continental one, which should make Seychelles qualifications easier to recognise across Africa.
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