Funke Opeke has resigned as MainOne’s Managing Director for West Africa weeks after the internet connectivity provider finalised its post-acquisition integration with Equinix. According to three people familiar with the matter, Opeke, who founded MainOne in 2008, will transition into a strategic advisory role for the West African region through March 2026.
She will be replaced by Wole Abu, the CEO of Liquid Intelligent Technologies Nigeria, three people familiar with the matter said. Abu previously served as Pan African Towers’ CEO and Vice President of Sales at Airtel Nigeria.
Abu will lead the company’s focus on growing its internet service provision and data centre business, one person familiar with the matter said. Equinix plans to launch three major data centre projects and extend its fibre capacity, TechCabal previously reported. The post-acquisition integration, which began in 2022, MainOne, Solutions by Equinix will retain its brand. The company operated two data centres in Lagos that are now fully controlled by Equinix.
The leadership change marks a new beginning for MainOne, Nigeria’s most prominent internet connectivity provider with a roll call of major banks and telcos as clients. In April 2022, MainOne was acquired by Equinix, the world’s largest global data centre and colocation provider, in one of the largest exits in Africa’s tech ecosystem.
MainOne did not immediately respond to a request for comments.
Funke Opeke was appointed MainOne’s MD for West Africa after Equinix’s $320 million acquisition of MainOne in April 2022. She had been the company’s CEO for over a decade and had led its growth since 2010 when it landed the first private submarine cable on the West Coast of Africa.
In 2013, Main One began laying a 27-kilometer fibre optic cable to cover the Yaba area of Lagos, known as Nigeria’s Silicon Valley. That led to several startups choosing to have offices in Yaba and midwifed the Nigerian tech ecosystem. MainOne’s fibre investment was instrumental to the growth of startups like Andela, CcHUB, Paga, Hotels.ng and Flutterwave.
