Funke Opeke, CEO of Nigerian telecom services and network solutions provider MainOne, has announced that the company's Tier III data centre is the West African country's first to be PCI DSS, ISO 27001 certified.

MainOne's Tier III Data Center, MDX-I, has received Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard (PCI DSS) and ISO 27001:2013 certifications.

In a statement the company said the certifications ensure the data centre's compliance to globally accepted standards on customer data security, as well as commitment towards the security and protection of the company's information assets.

"While the PCI DSS accreditation is the most comprehensive, internationally recognised data security standard focused on promoting payment card data security, the ISO 27001 standard is a globally recognised Information Security Management System (ISMS) standard which specifies the requirements for a business to establish, implement, review, monitor, manage and maintain effective information security management systems," the company explained.

MainOne's data centre was certified following a comprehensive ISO27001 audit carried out by business standards company the British Standard Institution (BSI) group.

The PCI DSS assessment was conducted by Digital Jewels Limited, a PCIDSS QSA and an Information Value Chain Company which also provided end-to-end support in preparing the Data Centre for certification to both standards.

The audits measured the facilities at the Data Center according to several strict criteria including physical access controls as well as information security policies, procedures and infrastructure.

Opeke said the certifications consolidates the company's investment in critical infrastructure and processes to grow West Africa's Digital Economy. "We have continued to see an increase in the number of payment card operators, and many of these are our customers. Our ability to ensure security of their customer data is attested to by these certifications and ensures we provide an equivalent level of security as the best in-house bank data centres", she said.