BY EBRIKU JOHN FRIDAY
The Founder and Chief Executive Officer of MainOne, Ms Funke Opeke has been slated to deliver Keynote Address at the 2019 eNigeria Conference, Exhibitions and Awards, which will hold next week, 28th and 29th of November.
Funke Opeke
Opeke, as the Keynote Speaker, will address Nigerians on Achieving National Digital Economy, considering the giant stride government has taken in promoting and developing Information Technology sector which led to changing the name of Ministry of Communications to Ministry of Communications and Digital Economy.
It could be recalled that an earlier statement from Head Corporate Affairs and External Relations, Hadiza Umar, mnipr, stated that President, Federal Republic of Nigeria, Muhammadu Buhari GCFR will declare the event open on 28th while Amina J. Mohammed was due to deliver the Keynote Address, but now Ms Funke Opeke will address the gathering.
According to the statement, The Honourable Minister of Communications and Digital Economy, Dr Isa Ali Ibrahim (Pantami), FNCS, FBCS, FIIM, is the Chief Host, and the Director-General/Chief Executive Officer, National Information Technology Development Agency (NITDA), Kashifu Inuwa Abdullahi CCIE will co-host and convene the event.
Ms. Funke Opeke, the founder and CEO of MainOne, a communication technology company formerly known as Main One Cable Company, is one of the West Africa’s leading communications services and network solutions providers that built West Africa’s first privately owned, open access 7,000 kilometer undersea high capacity cable submarine, a $240-million-dollar project that was completed in time and on budget in 2010.
MainOne also built West Africa’s largest Tier III Data Center, MDX-i’s Lekki Data Center, a $40 million investment with a capacity for 600 racks.
Ms. Opeke is an experienced telecommunications executive, she obtained her first degree in Electrical Engineering from Obafemi Awolowo University, Ile-Ife and a Master’s degree in Electrical Engineering from Columbia University, New York.
After she graduated from Columbia University, she followed with a career in Information Communication Technology in the United States as an executive director with the wholesale division of Verizon Communications in New York City. In 2005, she joined MTN Nigeria as Chief Technical Officer (CTO). She also served as adviser at Transcorp and chief operating officer of NITEL for a brief period.
eNigeria is Nigeria’s annual Information Technology (IT) summit organized by the National Information Technology Development Agency (NITDA) in collaboration with relevant stakeholders from the private and public sector as well as Non-Governmental Organizations.
It serves as a platform for ICT awareness creation, developing appropriate framework and setting goals for best practices in order to encourage appropriate positioning of Nigeria in the global Information Society.
