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ROLE : Founder & Chief Executive Officer , MainOne APPOINTED : 2008 EXPERIENCE : 20 + years

For more than a decade , Funke Opeke has been one of the driving forces behind the development of Nigeria ’ s digital infrastructure . After attending and graduating from university in the US , Opeke held a number of ICT roles before returning to Nigeria in 2005 as the CTO of MTN . In 2008 , she founded MainOne , which has since grown to become West Africa ’ s leading communications services and network solutions provider . She has overseen the $ 240mn construction of the region ’ s first privately-owned , open access , 7,000 kilometer undersea high capacity submarine cable , as well as the country ’ s largest Tier III data centre . She has a master ’ s degree in electrical engineering from Columbia University in New York .