Broadband infrastructure company, MainOne and search engine giant Facebook, have reportedly spent $20 million to develop terrestrial fibre infrastructure in Edo State, Southern Nigeria.
The Edo State Governor, Godwin Obaseki, disclosed this during an interview after the ninth edition of the Annual Investment Meeting (AIM) in Dubai, United Arab Emirates (UAE). The event was themed: “Mapping the Future of Foreign Direct Investment: Enriching World Economies through Digital Globalisation.”
MainOne provides innovative telecoms services and network solutions across West Africa. The joint investment with Facebook will advance Edo State’s aim to become the South-South’s digital hub.
According to Governor Obaseki, the Edo State Government decided to work with these tech companies because global economic growth now comes from the digital transactions of digital economies.
“Today, we have an innovation hub, we are partnering with technology companies. But what is even more important is that we are working with facebook and MainOne.
“We are constructing about 400 kilometres of fibre in Edo as we speak. In the next couple of months, it should be ready for commissioning.
“Don’t forget that we also have energy; we have a lot of oil and gas and therefore we are building power plants. Outside Azura, we are also building another 55MW of power. With electricity and fibre, we are 50 per cent there.
“All we need to do is to get the content providers, get our educational system to be in tuned. Facebook and MainOne, I think they have invested in excess of $20m.
“The global economic growth now is coming more from the digital transactions from digital economies and it’s important that emerging markets key in. So this summit is very apt to profit on our future.”
Facebook, MainOne to birth high-speed internet for Nigerian States
Two States in Nigeria will be the recipient of a metro fibre infrastructure project that will be built in a bid to deepen broadband penetration in Nigeria and accelerate the digital transformation in these parts of the country.
The metro fibre infrastructure project is the brainwork of cable company, MainOne, who in partnership with social networking service company, Facebook, intend to connect more people to broadband internet in Edo State and Ogun State.
