Funke Opeke is a prominent Nigerian businesswoman and entrepreneur known for her significant contributions to the telecommunications industry in Nigeria. She is the founder and CEO of Main One Cable Company, a leading communications services and network solutions provider in West Africa.
Opeke was born and raised in Lagos, Nigeria. She obtained her Bachelor’s degree in Electrical Engineering from Obafemi Awolowo University in Nigeria and later pursued further studies abroad, earning a Master’s degree in Electrical Engineering from Columbia University in New York City.
Before founding Main One Cable Company, Opeke gained extensive experience working in various capacities in the telecommunications industry. She held senior positions at several companies, including Verizon Communications in the United States, where she worked for over a decade.
In 2008, Funke Opeke returned to Nigeria with the vision of revolutionizing the telecommunications infrastructure in West Africa. She founded Main One Cable Company with the aim of providing reliable and affordable broadband internet connectivity to businesses and individuals in the region.
Main One’s flagship project was the installation of an undersea fiber optic cable connecting West Africa to Europe. This cable significantly improved internet connectivity in the region, providing high-speed broadband access to millions of people and enabling economic growth and development.
Under Opeke’s leadership, Main One has grown to become one of the leading telecoms infrastructure companies in Africa, offering a range of services including data center solutions, cloud services, and connectivity solutions for businesses and telecommunications operators.
Funke Opeke’s achievements have earned her recognition both nationally and internationally. She has received numerous awards and accolades for her contributions to the telecommunications industry and for her role in driving innovation and economic development in Africa.
In addition to her business endeavors, Opeke is also involved in initiatives aimed at promoting education and empowering young people, particularly in the fields of science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM). She serves as a role model and inspiration to aspiring entrepreneurs, especially women, across the African continent.
Here’s why we consider her a woman giant;
- After graduating from Columbia University, with an MSc in Electrical Engineering, Funke Opeke started in ICT working as an executive director with Verizon Communications wholesale division in New York City. In 2005, she joined MTN Nigeria as the Chief Technical Officer. She also worked briefly as an advisor at Transcorp and then as Chief Operating Officer at NITEL, where she discovered the country’s poor internet access issues.
- In 2008, she raised $240 million in finance that would go to the construction of 4400 miles of fibre optic cable stretching between Nigeria and Portugal.
- Main One was founded in 2008, becoming West Africa’s first privately owned and largest cable network provider. The company constructed a 7000-kilometre undersea high capacity cable submarine with stations in Accra, Dakar, Abidjan and Lagos.
- In 2015, under Main One, she launched MDXi, an internet service provider with a network of world-class data centres across West Africa, a hub for digital content, cloud platforms and a network ecosystem for West Africa. The system enables financial institutions like Master Card to function properly in West Africa and is currently operating in three countries; Nigeria, Ghana and Cote d’Ivoire.
- MDXi provides network data centres for internet exchange that enables one to connect to regional networks and network providers, network data centres for payment providers to enable local payments within a country, cloud-connected network capabilities
- The operations of Main One are widely credited for the transformation of Nigeria’s internet presence which has resulted in easier online banking, travel bookings, e-commerce etc.
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