Bio

Funke Opeke is the founder of MainOne, now an Equinix company. MainOne is a leading provider of telecommunications and Internet infrastructure services in West Africa. The company built West Africa’s first privately owned, open-access submarine cable system in 2010, interconnecting Lagos, Nigeria; Accra, Ghana; Abidjan, Cote DÍvoire, Dakar, Senegal and Seixal, Portugal, and has since expanded its services to ten West African countries.

Under her leadership, MainOne played a significant role in expanding broadband access and digital infrastructure across West Africa and her contributions have been recognized for advancing technology and promoting innovation in Nigeria and beyond. In 2019, Funke chaired the Committee to develop Nigeria’s National Broadband Plan for 2020 – 2025 which has become the reference document for the expansion of broadband access for Nigeria. She was named by Forbes Magazine as one of the World’s Top 50 Women in Tech in 2018, and she was awarded the Member of the Order of the Niger National Award in Nigeria in 2022.

Funke returned to Nigeria in 2005 after a twenty-year career in the United States as Chief Technical Officer of MTN Nigeria. Following MTN, Ms Opeke advised Transcorp on the acquisition of NITEL and served as the interim Chief Operating Officer, post-acquisition. Prior to her return to Nigeria, she was the Executive Director of Verizon Communications Wholesale Division in New York.

She obtained a first degree in electrical engineering from Obafemi Awolowo University, Ile-Ife Nigeria and a master’s degree in electrical engineering from Columbia University, New York.

MainOne was acquired on April 1, 2022, by Equinix, the world’s leading digital infrastructure company as the Fortune 500’s company entry into Africa.