Funke Opeke: A Instrumental Figure for African Data Centres
Funke Opeke is one of the leading voices in African data centres, and a hugely inspirational figurehead for women in the regional market, as well as the wider data centre industry.
For a number of years, she has been one of the driving forces behind the development of Nigeria’s digital infrastructure and economy. Her company, MainOne, grew at such a fast pace with her as CEO and founder (until her resignation in November 2024), that it became the leading communications services and network solutions provider in West Africa, before it was acquired by Equinix for US$320m in 2021.
Funke has overseen developments such as the construction of Nigeria’s first privately-owned, open access, 7,000 kilometre undersea high capacity submarine cable, in addition to the country’s largest Tier III data centre. She has also been named one of the World’s Top 50 Women in Tech by Forbes in 2018 and one of the Top 10 Women in Data Centres in MEA by us at Data Centre Magazine.
Sparking the Nigerian internet revolution
Funke grew up in Ibadan, Oyo State in Nigeria, within a family of nine. She obtained a Bachelor’s degree in Electrical Engineering from Obafemi Awolowo University in Nigeria, before moving to the US and achieving a Master’s degree in Electrical Engineering from Columbia University in New York.
“Technology was revolutionising the world, data communications was starting to take off and I felt I had some things to learn,” she said, speaking at the Uzemu Leadership Summit 1.0 earlier in 2024. “It was a difficult time in Nigeria and I had the opportunity to progress my career before I returned.”
In 2005, she returned to her homeland of Nigeria and joined MTN Nigeria as the company’s Chief Technical Officer. She later founded MainOne, a leading digital infrastructure service provider in West Africa, with a presence in Nigeria, Ghana and Côte d'Ivoire.
Funke first formed the company when she recognised how poor internet connectivity was in the country, which led to MainOne building West Africa's first privately owned, open access 7,000-kilometre undersea high-capacity cable submarine. The MainOne cable connected West Africa to Portugal, with landings in Accra (Ghana), Dakar (Senegal), Abidjan (Côte d'Ivoire) and Lagos (Nigeria).
On this, she said: “Digital transformation is upon us, whether we like it or not, and so there is a role we can play in this growing ecosystem.”
Under Funke’s influence, MainOne quickly became a leading West African data centre and connectivity solutions provider and provided services to major telecom operators, ISPs, government agencies, enterprises and educational institutions.
In 2015, MainOne started operations of one of Nigeria’s largest Tier III data centres, MDXi Lekki. Located in Lagos and built by MainOne’s subsidiary MDXi, the facility offers colocation, cloud services, interconnection and wholesale deployments.
An internet leader
As a result of MainOne’s success, the company was acquired by Equinix, a world-leading data centre company. Funke was appointed as a managing director to Equinix in 2022 after the acquisition to continue her legacy of developing broadband infrastructure in Nigeria. She resigned in November 2024 and now steps into a strategic advisory role for the West African region until March 2026.
By building terrestrial fibre optic networks and data centres across West Africa, in addition to the submarine cable, Funke has completely expanded West African connectivity capabilities, including internet capacity.
“Infrastructure is happening around us, and we need to do more to grow the economy and build the future we desire. The world needs to go digital,” Funke said in 2019 at Techpoint Africa.
“Africa needs to retain more local traffic within the continent to drive more value from the internet.”
Funke’s achievements are a source of inspiration to many, leading her to become an influential voice in advocating for improved broadband access and digital inclusion across the West African region.
“You need to dare to be,” Funke said at the Uzemu Leadership Summit 1.0. “A commitment to excellence in everything you do goes a long way overtime. I hope in most of our engineering programmes today, women are now better represented.”
As a result of her trailblazing efforts, she has received numerous awards and accolades, mostly for her contributions to internet growth in Nigeria. These include making the Africa’s Most Powerful Women in Technology list in 2013 and becoming an Officer of the Order of the Niger (OON) in 2022.
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