When I imagine a submarine cable, I picture smug dolphins and underwater sci-fi dramas; not something built by a Nigerian engineer right here on Earth. But that’s exactly what Funke Opeke achieved: she brought West Africa online, and not on dial-up either.
Who Is Funke Opeke?
Funke Opeke studied electrical engineering in Ibadan, then at Columbia University; so yes, she can talk circuits and code like it’s nobody’s business. After two decades working in the U.S. telecom industry (think Verona and SendMail), she returned to Nigeria in 2005 to shake things up.
MainOne: The 7,000km Internet Lifeline
In 2008, she founded MainOne with a bold vision: fix Nigeria’s slow, expensive internet.
By 2010, she launched a 7,000 km undersea cable from Portugal to Lagos; West Africa’s first privately owned fiber-optic system. The cable slashed bandwidth costs by up to 80%, bringing real change to businesses, startups, and education across the region .
Funke didn’t stop there; she extended fiber to Ghana, Cameroon, Senegal, Côte d’Ivoire, and even into a Tier III data center in Lagos by 2015.
Scaling Impact + Global Recognition
She’s a powerhouse. In 2013 she was named one of Africa’s Most Powerful Women in Tech, and by 2022 MainOne was acquired by Equinix® in a $320 million deal. Today, she’s shaping digital strategy across West Africa as Equinix’s MD.
What Made It Happen?
- She knew West Africa’s bottlenecks and brought U.S. telecom expertise.
- She risked savings, convinced banks and investors, and navigated complex cross-border permits.
- Her infrastructure enabled Yaba’s tech hub, Andela, CcHUB, Flutterwave; all now thriving thanks to faster internet.
Why This Matters to Us
We often build apps and features; but without reliable backend infrastructure, none of it works. Funke’s work is a reminder: the core must be stable and accessible before anything else can bloom.
She also teaches us that building is both technical and strategic: cables, centers, permits, partnerships; every piece mattered.
Want more stories about people powering the tech behind the scenes? Subscribe and get curated tech tales from me; your local dev girl juggling keyboards, cables, and way too many browser tabs.
Leave a Reply