The story of the establishment of Main One by Funke Opeke is one that teaches the power of tenacity and purpose.
Funke Opeke is a Nigerian electrical engineer and the founder of Main Street Technologies. She also serves as the CEO of Main One Cable Company, a frontline and leading communications services provider in West Africa with its headquarters in Lagos State, southwest Nigeria. Under her leadership, Main One has grown to become the region’s top provider of network solutions and communications services.
Funke Opeke’s Background
Funke is a native of Ile-Oluji, in Ondo State, but she was raised in Ibadan, the capital of Oyo State. She was born into a family of nine; her mother was a teacher, while her father was the first Nigerian director of the Cocoa Research Institute of Nigeria. She attended Queens School (for girls only) in Ibadan and later went to Obafemi Awolowo University, where she was awarded a bachelor’s degree in electrical engineering. She also has a Master’s Degree in Electrical Engineering from Columbia University.
She pursued a career in ICT after graduating from Columbia University in the United States, working as an executive director for Verizon Communications’ wholesale division in New York City. In 2005, she worked for various businesses, including a PA consulting firm, and has over 20 years of experience.
Work Experience
In 2005, she decided to return to Nigeria, where she was hired as an operations manager by the local MTN operator. She was actively involved in efforts to increase internet connectivity throughout the nation, working to create submarine cables to fill the infrastructure gap needed for more excellent internet connectivity, among other things.
She also served as Chief Operating Officer at Nitel and advised Transcorp on the acquisition of NITEL, where she briefly served as the interim Chief Operating Officer.
Since receiving her Master’s degree and spending more than 20 years abroad, Funke struggled to readjust to living in Nigeria. The unstable internet infrastructure presented a significant obstacle for her, as she was used to living in a nation with excellent internet access.
Opeke is constantly reminded of the squandered potential she sees in Nigeria. But as the founder and CEO of Main One Cable Company, she also sees solutions to these problems. She recalls that when she first came back to Nigeria, “the ordinary young person didn’t know what the internet was,” but in the developed world, everyone was already connected.
One primary reason most online communication in Africa relies on satellite networks is that there is no reliable physical internet connection. The skilled electrical engineer understood that the internet’s basic infrastructure must be addressed.
She argues, “We can’t leave an entire generation of young people without proper access to the internet,”
The Birth of Main One
She learned from her experience working for the state telecommunications firm NITEL that satellites were only one aspect of the issue. In 2008, Funke Opeke founded Main One Cable Company, intending to use her engineering expertise to lay a 7,000-kilometre fibre optic cable from Portugal to Nigeria.
Unfortunately, the project required $240 million in funding, but Opeke was undeterred.
Many people thought the idea was impossible, too ambitious, and even crazy. But Opeke believed in her vision and was willing to sacrifice everything to make it a reality. Against all odds, she laid the cable and connected Nigeria to the global internet. Even though it was an exciting adventure, she was unsure if she would go on another one. Nevertheless, she was successful, and the impact on what is now Africa’s largest economy was a cyber-revolution.
Main One is Africa’s first privately owned, open-access 7,000-kilometer undersea high-capacity submarine cable. It docked in Accra (Ghana), Dakar (Senegal), Abidjan (Cote d’Ivoire) in 2019, and Lagos (Nigeria) in 2020. MainOne owns and operates a 1,200-kilometer terrestrial fibre network in southern Nigeria and a 7,000-kilometer subsea network between Nigeria and Portugal.
More Milestones
Her business connected an underwater cable from Lagos, Nigeria, to Cameroon and started managing MDXi, dubbed Nigeria’s largest Tier III data centre, in 2015. In addition, Funke Opeke founded Mainstreet Technologies, a business that develops financial software for use by both the public and commercial sectors.
Equinix has announced its plans to purchase the business for $320 million as a subsidiary, pending regulatory approval. The firm provides services to companies in more than ten African nations, making this the most prominent tech acquisition ever made in Nigeria and the first substantial deal overseen by an African woman when completed.
Main One’s Milestones
Main One Cable Company has so far remained the largest cable company in Africa. It was founded to help improve her country. Since its establishment, Main One Cable Company has become the go-to broadband provider for many companies. Thanks to broadband, internet banking in Nigeria has made significant advances. Local e-commerce has also flourished, with the rise of mail order companies like Konga and Jumia, online travel agencies, discount websites like DealDey, and others.
When the Google team visited Nigeria, they spoke with Funke Opeke. When the University of Lagos considers installing a broadband network on campus, they collaborate with Main One. Main One’s professional accomplishments have altered how Nigerians are perceived by the global business community.
People who had previously solely viewed us as con artists are now impressed by the manner we conducted ourselves.
Awards And recognitions
In 2017, she was listed as one of the top 50 economic influencers in Europe, the Middle East, and Africa by Data Cloud Europe. Mrs Opeke also won the CNBC All Africa Businesswoman of the Year honour in 2012.
