Yesterday, Nigeria’s submarine cable owner, MainOne announced a partnership deal with Facebook that will the two companies putting up a metro fiber infrastructure project in two states of Nigeria’s Ogun and Edo.
What this means is that, the project, which is part of Facebook’s effort to connect more people to broadband internet in Nigeria will provide connectivity to more than 1,000,000 people in Benin City, Abeokuta, Sagamu and 10 other towns by connecting mobile operators’ base stations, Internet Service providers, Points of presence (POPs), and public locations including schools and hospitals.
In a statement, the partnership will leverage MainOne’s strength as a wholesale Telecoms Infrastructure service provider with investment from Facebook and support from local regulations and state authorities to further deepen broadband penetration in Nigeria.
Speaking on the collaboration, MainOne’s Chief Executive Officer, Funke Opeke believes that the collaboration and the commitment of Facebook and authorities in Nigeria to improving broadband penetration across the country.
“MainOne has always been committed to broadband innovation, job creation, as well as growing the digital economy of West Africa. We believe that this partnership and the open-access network we have developed will be beneficial to improving the quality of access and accelerating the digital transformation in Ogun and Edo States,” she said.
Also commenting, Ibrahima Ba, Network Investments Lead for Emerging Markets at Facebook said: “We are working closely with MainOne and other partners to accelerate broadband deployment. In Nigeria, we are bringing together Facebook’s learnings from scaling our global infrastructure with MainOne’s knowledge of the local environment to develop and test new working models for multiple operators to access common infrastructure.”