Special to USAfrica magazine (Houston) and USAfricaonline.com, first Africa-owned, US-based newspaper published on the Internet.
By Chido Nwangwu. @Chido247
The most attractive sauce for the key businesses across the world, today, is intellectual capital.
Second, the swift catalyst for most investors in the vast and expanding markets and economies of the world is intellectual capital.
Whichever way you look at it, the reason why the United States is the most powerful economy in the world derives from the intellectual capital of such mega corporations as Apple, Microsoft, Google, Facebook/Meta, Tesla, Amazon and many others.
The reason why Mark Zuckerberg — as an individual — has more financial resources than most countries and continents rests on the intellectual capital of Facebook and related corporations.
Similarly, a far-sighted, strategically-adroit Nigerian woman, Funke Opeke assessed the trends and direction of the emerging markets and dominant economies of the world.
She did see, like other astute observers, the unrelenting rise of the vital value of data, effective solutions and scalable digital infrastructure. Those are three among other critical components of intellectual capital.
She attended Columbia University — for a master’s degree. She’s an electrical engineer.
I believe her embrace of the vitality of intellectual capital prepared Funke Opeke for history-making this December 2021— as the chief executive officer of the data center and digital infrastructure company called MainOne, headquartered in Lagos, Nigeria.
Equinix, one of the world’s leading digital infrastructure corporations, announced on December 7, 2021, as part of its expansion into Africa its intended acquisition of MainOne. MainOne also operates in Ghana and Côte d’Ivoire. The transaction has an enterprise value of US $320 million. The acquisition is expected to close in the first quarter of 2022.
She believes: “Equinix will accelerate our long-term vision to grow digital infrastructure investments across Africa. I thank our founding shareholders led by Mr. Fola Adeola, MainStreet Technologies, AFC, PAIDF, FBN, Polaris and AfDB ….”
On his part, Eugene Bergen, President, EMEA, Equinix: “Expansion in Africa has long been a strategic priority for us. With MainOne, we have found a company that not only has highly complementary data center and connectivity assets, but can further accelerate the expansion of our business model and growth…..”
Equinix also pointed to the demographics advantage: “With more than 200 million people, Nigeria is Africa’s largest economy and, along with Ghana, has become an established data center hub.
Founded by Opeke in 2010, MainOne has enabled connectivity for the business community of Nigeria and now has digital infrastructure assets….”
Overall, the two corporations believe that this acquisition and expansion will enable and accelerate digital transformation throughout Africa. *Dr. Chido Nwangwu, author of the 2022 book, MLK, Mandela & Achebe: Power, Leadership and Identity, serves as Founder & Publisher of the first African-owned, U.S-based newspaper on the internet, USAfricaonline.com, USAfrica magazine; established USAfrica in 1992 in Houston. He has appeared severally as an analyst on CNN, SABC, SKYnews; and served as an adviser on Africa business to Houston’s former Mayor Lee Brown. @Chido247
