The Nation Newspaper

Tag: MainOne

  • MainOne: Data solutions, analytics critical to insurance penetration

    Telecoms services and network solutions provider for businesses in West Africa, MainOne, has challenged the insurance industry to adopt the use of data and analytic tools to drive sustainable growth in the sector.

    The challenge was issued at a one-day insurance round table aimed at helping the insurance community achieve market leadership through digital distribution channels, which held at the Wheatbaker Hotel, Lagos.

    Speaking at a panel session on Data and Analytics within the Insurance Industry, MainOne’s Product Manager, Data Centre, Vremudia Oghene-Ruemu, explained that Nigeria’s insurance industry can achieve distinction through effective distribution channels. According to him, there is an ever increasing amount of data that insurance companies need to collect, analyse and store in order to properly manage risks.

    He said MainOne has identified the need for effective data storage and analytics and, being an innovative solutions provider, has developed efficient hosting solutions through its Tier III Data Center–MDXi.

    Oghene-Ruemu said: “Adding analytics to the claims life cycle(can deliver a measurable return on investment (RoI) with cost savings. Our data centre, the largest in West Africa, provides a platform for insurance companies to embrace efficient and cost effective hosting solutions. The industry can close product distribution gaps, enhance premium collection, reduce agency fraud and also build consumer confidence.”

    He added that risk analytics helps in changing the insurance industry by making adjustment and custom calculation based on different types of clients. Brokers now focus on their clients data, using the analytical methods to come up with better strategic decisions about the possible risks they will face. The usage of analytical risk is very helpful in making possible risks measured, avoided, and even transferred, he said.

    He explained that MDXi is a subsidiary of MainOne and is PCI DSS certified with the ISO 9001 and 27001 certifications. The facility offers 99.98 per cent availability, multiple layers of security and has won several awards including the Frost and Sullivan award for providing advanced data center infrastructure in West Africa.

    The forum, which was well attended by senior execs of insurance firms operating in Nigeria, provided the platform for the exchange of ideas among insurance agents, insurance companies, insurance support organisations and information technology experts. As part of the roundtable’s commitment to raising the professional and information standards of the industry, MainOne highlighted the importance of data and analytics within the insurance industry.

  • MainOne to raise $300m for expansion

    MainOne Cable Co., which operates an undersea cable connecting West Africa, plans to raise $300 million to expand Internet services and connectivity in Nigeria and the wider region.

    The funding may come from additional shareholder equity, loans or through a bond sale within the next five years, Chief Executive Officer Funke Opeke said in Lagos.

    The company, which has invested $300 million in the past five years, will expand its data centres and submarine cable infrastructure in Cameroon, Ghana, Ivory Coast and Nigeria as more companies move “their business model online”, Opeke said.

    Companies are tapping Nigeria’s potential as a data market, with 147 million mobile-phone subscribers in Africa’s most populous nation. Nigeria wants to increase its broadband penetration fivefold from four percent of the population, according to its National Broadband Plan for 2013-2018.

    “When you look at where the market opportunities exist in West Africa, I think if we have Nigeria, Ghana and Ivory Coast, we have probably covered 60 to 75 percent of the market,” Opeke added.

  • How to leapfrog Nigeria to service economy, by MainOne

    How to leapfrog Nigeria to service economy, by MainOne

    The Chief Executive Officer, MainOne, Ms. Funke Opeke, has said the potential of broadband as an enabler for creating employment increasing Gross Domestic Product (GDP) are almost limitless, adding that its development will facilitate the diversification of the economy from its current natural resource dependence to the labour-intensive service economy.

    Opeke, who spoke during one of the sessions at the Commonwealth Broadband Forum organised by the Commonwealth Telecommunications Organisation (CTO) and the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) in Abuja, urged government to work its talk on the implementation of the National Broadband Plan (NBP).

    Represented by Mr. Temitope Osunrinde on the occasion, Opeke examined the role of a national broadband policy in driving the nation’s GDP, stressing that in post-rebasing of the national GDP, the contribution of the information communication technology (ICT) industry in Nigeria had risen from 5.6 per cent to 8.69 per cent.

    She said the ICT sector has also accelerated the growth of the services industry, which showed a post-rebased GDP percentage growth from 29.04 per cent to 51.59 per cent

    Opeke said the Federal Ministry of Communications Technology and the NCC had made significant achievements with the NBP  specifically with the licensing of infrastructure and spectrum companies, the Nigerian Research and Education Network and the Universal Service Provision Fund (USPF). She stressed the need for sustaining the policy initiatives introduced to promote the open access and manage spectrum more effectively to continue to drive economic growth.

    “Nigeria needs to move up the value chain beyond dependence on natural resources, and into the labour-intensive service economies and implementation of the National Broadband Plan will enable this to happen,” she said.

    Its Regulatory Manager, Oluwakemi Adeyanju, who joined regulatory officials from South Africa, Trinidad and Tobago and Nigeria to discuss the role of regulation in achieving innovation in Infrastructure, Services and Applications across Commonwealth countries, highlighted the need for proactive regulation in meeting current and future needs of the ICT industry, specifically for new service areas such as e-commerce and cloud services.

  • MainOne urges outsourcing of data management

    MainOne urges outsourcing of data management

    MainOne’s new subsidiary, MDX-I, has urged major firms in the country to leverage on outsourced Data Centre services to drive down costs and optimise operational efficiency.

    Convinced about the cost-efficiency of outsourced data, MDX-I and its parent company, MainOne a breakfast seminar in Lagos targeted at senior level IT managers to discuss strategies for companies that require improved data centre capacity. This session revealed valuable global insights from leading IT research company, the International Data Corporation (IDC), and global Cloud specialist, EMC2 Corporation, in addition to specialists from MainOne.

    MainOne’s Head of Marketing, Jumoke Akande, said the recent macro-economic issues in the country and fluctuating global oil prices necessitated the need for companies to use the session to explore how they can utilise Cloud and other Data Centre hosted-business applications to enhanced productivity at reasonable costs.

    With leading data experts from IDC and EMC2 Corporation as speakers, the session shed light on global trends in Data Centers, planning issues to consider, and the case for businesses to co-locate in commercial data centers which offer extraordinary levels of performance, as against building in-house data center facilities from ground up.

    Ms. Akande stressed that high level of attendance at the seminar with “Making the business case for data centre Migration” as its theme revealed the enlightened perspectives that IT managers in Nigeria are adopting to withstand economic pressures and reduce costs.

  • Dwindling oil prices: MainOne urges ICT deployment

    Dwindling oil prices: MainOne urges ICT deployment

    The Chief Executive Officer, MainOne,  Ms. Funke Opeke, has urged both the private and public sectors of the economy to deploy information communication technology (ICT), improve productivity and lower operating cost.

    She said the ICT sector is also important for the oil and gas industry as its deployment would result in optimum resource utilisation at lower cost.

    “The role of the ICT is particularly  critical in driving down costs and optimising operational efficiency in this period of falling oil prices. Oil and gas companies need to adopt ICT solutions to maintain profitability,” Opeke said during this year’s Oil and Gas Session in Lagos.

    She  added that  the slump in global oil prices has made fiscal belt-tightening measures imperative, stressing that with Federal Government reviewing 6,000 ongoing projects and proposing doubling of Value Added Tax (VAT) from five to 10 per cent, there is need for oil and gas companies to toe this line by leveraging available ICT infrastructure in Nigeria.

    Speaking on the expansion plans of the undersea cable company,  Opeke said Cameroon is one of  the countries the firm is looking forward to taking the sea cable to. She also said the firm will take services to the oil and gas producing Niger Delta region of the country.

    This, she believed, will significantly improve connectivity services in the Southsouth region and enable oil companies in this region access the internet more effectively by effortlessly interconnecting with their home offices.

    Specifically, Opeke noted the importance of enhanced connectivity of digital oil fields to MainOne’s Tier III Data Center, MDX-I cannot be overemphasised as it would lead to significant cost reduction.

    MainOne offers telecommunications services which include data center, co-location, global video center, metro ethernet, managed services, global internet services and global IP transit. The MainOne Tier III Certified Data Center, MDX-i, is TIA (Telecommunication Industry Association) 942 compliant with 600 rack space and ample work area space.

  • MainOne unveils N7b data centre

    MainOne unveils N7b data centre

    Provider of innovative telecom services and network solutions for businesses in West Africa, MainOne, has unveiled its  Tier III Lekki Data Centre to address the growing demand for colocation, cloud and disaster recovery services in the sub-region. It cost the firm N7 billion.

    In a statement, the firm said the facility designed to international TIA 942 standards, will be managed under a new subsidiary branded as MDX-i.

    Speaking during the inauguration of  the infrastructure, Chairman of MainOne, Fola Adeola reiterated the company’s commitment to nurture the growth and impact of the Internet ecosystem through the provision of high-quality infrastructure to power businesses and governments across West Africa.

    Its Chief Executive Officer, Ms Funke Opeke said: “We are delighted to launch West Africa’s largest and best-connected data centre.  “This reaffirms our capabilities in meeting the needs of business for reliable connectivity and data centre services in a dynamic and fast paced global economy.”

    The Minister of Communications Technology, Dr. (Mrs.) Omobola Johnson, who performed the commissioning of the facility, said the launch of MDX-I data centre facility is a notable accomplishment that complements initiatives required to further drive the realisation of the National  Broadband Plan of the Federal Government.

    She said:  “Availability of world class Data centres in Nigeria is critical infrastructure required for the implementation of our Broadband initiatives. The accomplishment by MainOne is indeed significant as it provides an outsourcing and cost effective model to further drive ICT adoption.”

    MDX-i’s Tier III Lekki Data Center is the first of many planned data centers by the company in Nigeria.  It is a N7 Billion investment and has capacity for 600 racks.  The data center provides corporate customers with world class co-location, cloud and managed services and the first set of customers will enjoy services starting from next week.

     

  • MainOne unveils West Africa’s largest data centre

    MainOne, Nigeria’s leading provider of innovative telecom services and network solutions for businesses in West Africa, has commissioned its premier Tier III Lekki Data Centre to address the growing demand for Collocation, Cloud and Disaster Recovery Services in West Africa.

    The centre is to operate as an entity under a new subsidiary to be known as MDX-1.

    Speaking at the launch, the Chairman of MainOne, Fola Adeola, reiterated the company’s commitment to nurture the growth and impact of the Internet ecosystem through the provision of high-quality infrastructure to power businesses and governments across West Africa.

    Chief Executive Officer, MainOne, Funke Opeke, said, “We are delighted to launch West Africa’s largest and best-connected data center.  This reaffirms our capabilities in meeting the needs of business for reliable connectivity and data centre services in a dynamic and fast paced global economy.”

    The highpoint of the occasion was the unveiling of the centre by Minister of Communications Technology, Dr. Omobola Johnson,  as well as other notable industry leaders.

  • MainOne’s $40m data centre gets Tier 111 certification

    MainOne’s $40m data centre gets Tier 111 certification

    West Africa’s leading provider of network solutions for businesses, MainOne, has received Tier III Certification of Design Documents for its new Lekki Data Centre, from the Uptime Institute, a United States (U.S) based consortium of companies that engage in education, publications, consulting, certifications, conferences and seminars for the enterprise data centre industry and for data centre professionals.

    The 600 rack, $40 million facility is the largest in the West African sub-region and it is built to help meet the rapidly growing demand for co-location, managed hosting and cloud services within the region.

    Its Chief Executive Officer, Ms. Funke Opeke said the state of the art facility providing highly-available and highly-redundant world class infrastructure is a carrier neutral. She said the facility, spread over 3,500 square meters, further consolidates the company’s investment in critical infrastructure to grow West Africa’s digital economy.

    She noted that the Data Center will provide a credible platform for businesses to transact online within the region without having to invest scarce capital and human resources to build out their own infrastructure, thus enhancing business efficiency and profitability.

    She said: “With the increased recognition of Nigeria as one of the leading emerging economies, it is important that we have available the infrastructure required to establish, enhance and sustain effective business performance in today’s global digital economy. Outsourcing of Data Centre and Connectivity services to a reputable provider like MainOne ensures businesses can adopt more cost effective models of consuming technology to allow increased focus of valuable company resources to drive business development and growth”.

  • MainOne supports schools in host community

    MainOne supports schools in host community

    As part of its commitment to its host community in Ajah, MainOne has lifted the Ogombo Community Primary School by renovating a block of four classrooms in Okun Mapo Primary School, and providing new school gates and classroom furniture for its students.

    In a statement, the firm said it also supplied crèche furniture, visitors’ chairs, mattresses, and educational toys to Okun Ajah Primary School at Ogombo, Ajah Local Government Area, Lagos. Speaking on its contributions to the community schools, MainOne’s Head, Support Services, Bimbo Olu-Martins asserts that its Ogombo drive forms part of the company’s efforts to improve education in Nigeria, “The major thrust of our community engagement has been towards the development of the education sector.

    This is why we have, since 2011, assisted these community schools in Ogombo, Ajah via identifying their various needs and exploring how we can provide for them”. Mrs. Olu-Martins also stressed the importance of its CSR thrust, stressing that “Ogombo has been an accommodating host to MainOne. Our CSR effort is hinged on strengthening our relationship with the community by enhancing the infrastructure in the community schools and ensuring their continued relevance to the society. That is why we have consistently supported these educational institutions by improving their environment.”

    The Principal of Ogombo Primary School, Mr. Sarafa Iyowun,  expressed appreciation for the laudable transformation that MainOne implemented, adding that school and the pupils are forever grateful to the Company for this inestimable and kind gesture, as he urged other Corporate organisations to emulate MainOne.

    Since 2011, MainOne has been involved in the Primary Schools in Ogombo, Okun Ajah and Okun Mapo with yearly donations of study materials including school bags, text and exercise books, and renovation of critical infrastructure facilities.

    The company’s contribution to the development of these schools forms a part of its Corporate Social Responsibility focus in Education and Information and Communications Technology. MainOne is also a leading sponsor of the annual Software Competition organised by the Institute of Software Practitioners of Nigeria; the T.E.N.T gathering of Paradigm Initiative Nigeria, the Girls-In-ICT Day, as well as ideation and innovation initiatives, such as Demo Africa, the Co-Creation Hub, and L5Lab, among others.

     

  • MainOne urges submarine cables protection

    MainOne has urged the government, maritime bodies and other stakeholders with responsibilities in seabed use to clamour for the protection of submarine cables and other critical information technology (IT) infrastructure.

    The firm said it is only by protecting critical telecoms infrastructure that the vexed issue of poor quality of service (QoS) could become a thing of the past.

    Its Regulatory Manager, Oluwakemi Adeyanju, who spoke during the second Cable Protection and Awareness Workshop, which held at the Harbour Point, Victoria Island, Lagos, stressed the neeed for an industry-wide collaboration to address the issue of willful vandalism of telecoms infrastructure.

    Adeyanju said the annual workshop agrees with the global protection initiative organised by the International Cable Protection Committee to sensitise stakeholders on the critical role of cable protection.

    She said: “We need to provide a collaborative, industry-wide framework for the protection of this critical infrastructure, and jointly tackle challenges QoS issues arising from infrastructure deficiencies. This workshop thus provides us an avenue to build ecosystems that assist enterprises in their stride for growth, and expediting the speed of broadband penetration across Nigeria and the West African sub-region.”

    The workshop, which sought to promote awareness of the strategic, economic and social benefits of submarine cables, especially to all stakeholders involved in seabed use, reiterated the significance of cables as critical information infrastructures whose availability, reliability and resilience are essential to the functioning of a modern economy, security, and other essential social values systems.

    MainOne, which organised the forum, hosted submarine cable companies, oil and gas companies, cable maintenance bodies, and regulatory agencies tasked with maritime safety and protection, and environment responsibilities, such as the Nigerian Ports Authority (NPA), Nigerian Maritime Administration and Safety Agency (NIMASA) and the Nigerian Institute for Oceanography and Marine Research, among others.