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Main One Cable Launch: Passion of ‘mad’ men and women
From Bangalore in India to London in the United Kingdom and Lagos in Nigeria are located continents and people separated by a great distance of several thousands of kilometres. Only a group of individuals with weird imagination could think of completely obliterating these stupendous cultural and geographic divides and bring the world, so to say, under one roof in one moment of life changing experience. This wild thought is exactly what MainOne Cable system achieved when it gathered a special audience of two serving state governors – Babatunde Raji Fashola of Lagos and Liyel Imoke of Cross River; past governor Donald Duke and his wife, Onari Duke and a wide array of chief executives of telecom companies, banks and regional financial institutions, the regulator and the arrowheads of the ICT media to listen to it tell its journey into global acclaim at the resplendent Zinnian Hall of Eko Hotel and Suites, Lagos on July 21, 2010. As properly captured by the state executive of Cross River, Governor Imoke; the idea of the submarine cable and its outstanding record landing time can only be a passion of a few mad men and mad women. The project commenced in 2007 and in July 2010, it is concluded, up and running. Those that started before it across the globe some as far back as seven years are still caught in the intricate web of confronting life under the sea and the constraints created on land by men. So, who is the Aladdin of the Main One cable and Main Street Technologies? It is a team of wild and daring people whom chairman of MainOne Cable Company and consummate investor, Fola Adeola described as stupid and crazy. After all, only mad people set up companies. These ones set up a life changing business which product bears a psychological witness that the Blackman can actually lead the world in human development. We did it! There was no country devious enough to refuse the passage of MainOne through the territory. And this must have been on the sheer strength of the vision behind the dream. According to chief executive officer and the initiator of the MainOne project, the team did it because the vision was strong and convincing, and the dreamers were passionate about it. Any wonder when she too used that phrase – we did it! She threw a big punch to the air and the resonating shout of joy from her colleagues in the company enlivened the beautiful hall of Eko Hotel and Suites. The audience could almost touch the air of success that radiated all around. Young and spritely team, the MainOne people and their supporters from Main Street Technologies are predominantly young people, both in age and in their hearts. One thing that must be pointed out however, is that they could do what they did because their vision was strong, their passion to bring the much needed change to the African continent was not with any iota of doubt and they found willing and crazy enough minds to drive their ship of generational change. They did not only succeed, we as a people, did it! It’s Future Proof This offers customers of MainOne cables an experience way out of this world whether they are surfing the web, holding teleconferencing or passing data from one end of the world to another, among several other advantages. For instance, while the general market trend is for the industry to aspire for data capacity as high as 10Gbps the cable that MainOne launched is capable of doing 40Gbps given its design which puts it ahead of existing infrastructures. Before the beautiful audience gathered for the launch programme in Lagos, a seamless quartet connection between Lagos, London, South Africa and Cisco’s operations centre in Bangalore, India was demonstrated leaving many mouths gaping open and as the Cross River state governor, Mr. Liyel Imoke said: “Sometimes, you are looking at the screen and you think you are watching television. It’s quite difficult to grasp the fact that you are talking and interacting with people from different countries all over the world, at the same time. It’s mind boggling, talking here and probably somebody is listening to me in India. As I speak in London, as I speak in another part of the world, it’s incredible.” The governor could not have been correct. The technology of the cable succeeded in completely obliterating the fudging that people experience from telecasts over long distances and eradicated the latency that is associated with Internet transmission across the world. The Master of Ceremony in Lagos was able to control the presentation made from the Cisco centres in London and Bangalore so they could tally with the timing of the event in Lagos. This high definition video feed over an Internet Protocol network is what the governor describes as being just like watching another television transmission albeit locally. A glass broke. Where? It took the MC to remind guests that the sound of the broken glass was not coming from India rather it was right there in Lagos. In that moment, using the video conferencing, the world became one and both Africans and Europeans and Asians were fused as one – a world without borders. Amazingly, the Cisco centre in Bangalore displayed technology that could give its occupants access to the rest of the world by a mere depression of a button. And before the audience, the speaker pointed on a screen behind him images of what was happening in Lagos where they sat at the same time as London, the USA, China and other places. Accordingly, the future is one where there is no limit to where anyone can be at any particular time. And to think that Nigeria and indeed the rest of Africa has become part of that small community that can interact through technologies like the MainOne cable, makes it more interesting. The Internet therefore has become a veritable tool that could end the intimidating rural-urban migration which has put enormous pressure on the facilities of urban centres in most countries of the world since the Internet could bring world class education to students in the remotest parts of the world; provide access to the best medical services to rural dwellers through telemedicine and in Africa, the innovative mobile banking has become the continent’s first telecom product to the rest of the world. As Funke Opeke revealed what goes on in her mind when she walks the streets of Lagos, she like most people, is confronted by hordes of young persons who appear hopeless without skills and sometimes ignorant of the world around them. Her cable and the myriad of technologies that it is capable of supporting may just be the missing hope that these young Nigerians need to retrace their steps and become the valuable asset that they were created to be. Perhaps, this vision is what the Lagos state governor, Mr. Babatunde Raji Fashola meant when he described MainOne cable as the missing link in his administration’s dream of transforming Lagos and the way the business of governance is carried out. With this technology and the obvious cheaper cost of its services, remote education will bring together students and researchers into an association which otherwise would have been impossible because of locations and costs. Indeed, breaking the barrier of boundaries through the cable means that instructors of the highest competence from different parts of the world can share their knowledge across borders, all to the benefit of students. And for those who have dreamt of the video phone technology and similar applications like IPTV, the MainOne cable may have just shortened the period of their waiting. Video phone technology is the place where most people desire to be and Huawei and other equipment suppliers already have products that can do this but the people in most parts of Africa have been hampered by low broadband capacity and the high cost of bringing such bandwidth content to people’s homes. And with the emerging status of Lagos as a megacity, the governor listed the numerous wonderful things he would like to see in the state and which the MainOne cable offers the best option for him and his team – telemedicine, transportation management, education without barriers and crime control, among others. Finally at precisely 13.22 hours when the MC called for various group photographs right after the thunderous ovation that greeted Funke Opeke’s closing remarks and her presentation to her impressive parents; it was obvious that the assignment has been accomplished and the commercial take-off of the MainOne cable system has commenced. And the various players in the various segments of the telecoms industry in Nigeria who were present at the epoch making event, took over the massive floor of the hall, doing what they have actually come to do – meet the right people. After all, the demonstration of the capabilities of the cable has only confirmed what they have waited for so long. While there were few glasses to cling, there were numerous exchange of cards and small meetings and appointments were made a confirmation that the cable is one of the missing links in the West African sub-region and one that will challenge the ingenuity of the youth population of these part of the world that has been often associated with negative use of the Internet, especially fraud mails. This is the company The Team: Mr. Bernard Logan is in the management team to oversee business development activities as Commercial Director. Mr. Logan has been involved in submarine cable systems for over 20 years and became a Senior Project Manager for STC (Standard Telephone Company) in 1988 where he held P&L responsibility for subsea projects. After STC was bought by Alcatel’s ASN, he held positions of both Bid Manager and Senior Projects Manager in France and Singapore on a number of projects including SeaMeWe3, TAT12/13, Telic Phil and Jakarta Surabaya. He joined Tyco Telecommunications in 1998 as Director of Sales and Marketing in the UK, responsible for business development within the EMEA region and contracts with his specific involvement included Yellow; TWA1; Esat2; Hugo; SMW4; Farice. Mr. Johnnie Coleman is in charge of Business Development for West Africa. Prior to joining the Company, he worked at the leading edge of network and system integration for over sixteen years. He brings with him a wealth of knowledge and experience in broadband network operations in West Africa and projects in the United Kingdom and United States with proven competence in technology management and product architecture. Prior to his appointment with Main One he served as the Chief Technology Officer for Internet Solutions Operations in Nigeria and Ghana, General Manager for Technology in Accelon before moving into the position of Chief Technology Officer for the group. Mr. Coleman had also had a stint as Acting CEO for Silicon Wireless (the Broadband subsidiary of Intercellular Nigeria Limited). He had previously been employed in several senior management positions including CTO for Third Rail (DiscoveryTel Ghana) and Africa Online. Ms. Opeke is advised by a Board of Directors led by: Mr. Fola Adeola, Chairman, is an entrepreneur, private investor and philanthropist who is founder and chairman of Fate Foundation, a charitable foundation to promote entrepreneurship among the youths of Nigeria. He is the founder and served as pioneer Managing Director and Chief Executive of Guaranty Trust Bank, Nigeria for twelve years. Mr. Adeola also served in his personal capacity on the Blair Commission for Africa. He sits on the Board as a representative of Main Street Technologies Limited. Dr. Dapo Oshinusi sits on the Board as a representative of Main Street Technologies Limited. He is the founder and Managing Director of Mansfield Energy. Mansfield Energy is a leading provider of drilling and well completion solutions with sand control services for the oil and gas industry in West and South Africa. He managed the business of Schlumberger for more than 20 years in the Middle East, West and South Africa and Europe. He was chairman of Society of Petroleum Engineers (SPE) Lagos section 1999-2000.He is an executive member of Petroleum Technology Association of Nigeria (PETAN), an association committed to the development of the Nigerian content with the transfer of technology to Nigerians in the oil and gas sector. Mr. Solomon Asamoah sits on the Board as a representative of the Africa Finance Corporation (AFC); an international organisation established in Nigeria and operating as a hybrid investment and development finance institution. He has over 20 years experience in Investment Banking and Management and is currently the Deputy Chief Executive Officer and the Chief Investment Officer of the AFC. He has worked in various investment advisory capacities within the Development Bank of Southern Africa, Softbank Emerging Markets, HSBC Markets and the International Finance Corporation (IFC). He graduated from Imperial College, London and holds a Masters Degree in Chemical Engineering. Mr. Timothy Oguntayo sits on the Board as a representative of Skye Bank Plc; one of Nigeria’s foremost banks. He is the General Manager for the Investment Banking group and has over 10 years of core banking experience, with responsibilities in financial advisory services, market and credit analysis, corporate banking, customer relationship management, and foreign exchange treasury Operations. He is a member of the Executive Committee Asset & Liability Management Committee (ALCO) and an associate member of the Chartered Institute of Bankers of Nigeria. He holds a degree in Accountancy and Business Studies, from the University of Uyo, Nigeria. Mr. Taiwo Okeowo sits on the Board as a representative of First Bank of Nigeria Plc (FBN); one of the oldest banks in Nigeria which has successfully transformed itself to be continually relevant and able to compete with the new-generation banks. Mr. Okeowo is a seasoned professional with over 19 years of investment banking experience. He joined FBN Capital (a subsidiary of FBN) in 2006 from First Bank where he was the Head of the Corporate Finance group. Prior to joining First Bank, he was a pioneer staff of IBTC (now StanbicIBTC). He has significant experience in deal structuring and fund raising in various sectors. He has specific experience in project finance, mergers, acquisitions, restructuring and securities underwriting. He advised on the two largest non-oil transactions to date in Nigeria namely the $1.2bn acquisition of Vmobile by MTC/Celtel and the $480m project financing of Obajana Cement. He has a first degree in Computer Science and a Sloan Masters (MSc.) in Management) from the London Business School. He is a Fellow of the Institute of Chartered Accountants of Nigeria. Dr. Ini Urua heads the Heavy Industry Department of Africa Finance Corporation. Previously, Ini was the Manager of the NEPAD Division of African Development Bank in charge of development and implementation of multi-country infrastructure projects and programmes across the whole continent. He worked for more than 10 years with BOC Group plc, England in Process Development and Design, Technology Marketing and Management, Strategic Planning, and Technology Transfer. Ini holds a honours bachelors degree (1st Class honours) in Chemical Engineering from the University of Ife, Nigeria, a Masters and Doctorate degree in Chemical Engineering from Imperial College London and an MBA in International Business Management from Ecole Europeenne des Affairs (EAP), Paris. He is a member of the American Institute of Chemical Engineer, a member of the Institution of Chemical Engineers, UK, and a chartered and registered Engineer. Mr. Alwyn Wessels sits on the Board as a representative of the Pan African Infrastructure Development Fund (PAIDF). He is the Chief Investment Officer of Harith. Before joining Harith he has over 10 years of experience as Senior Consultant for ABSA Capital, responsible for Project and Infrastructure Finance. Prior to this he enjoyed success in various senior positions in the construction and manufacturing industries. Mr. Sipho Makhubela is an Investment Director of Harith and has over seven years of structured debt experience. Prior to joining Harith, he worked for Investec Bank, Coronation Capital and African Merchant Bank. He spent the last two years running his own investment company with investments in the ICT and Energy and Manufacturing. He has also been involved in investments in Nigeria and Benin. Mr. Makhubela represents Pan African Infrastructure Development Fund (PAIDF) on Main One board of directors. The Journey: The travellers, their patrons Mr. Yomi Badejo Okusanya, Communications expert, event Master of Ceremony set the stage as he announced… My name is Yomi Badejo Okusanya and I have the privilege of taking you through today’s proceeding and I invite you to seat back and on behalf of Main One Cable Company, we welcome you to this epoch making event. Today marks a different kind of new beginning for our nation Nigeria, I therefore welcome you to the super technology highway that we are about to enter. But to tell us lots more about what Main One Company has done and to welcome you formally, it’s my pleasure to present the Chairman of Main One Company Nigeria, Mr. Fola Adeola. Mr. Adeola is an entrepreneur and philanthropist who founded the Fate Foundation a charitable foundation to promote entrepreneurship among the youths of Nigeria, he is the founding managing director and chief executive of Guaranty Trust Bank Nigeria PLC for 12 years, Mr. Adeola also served on the Blair Commission for Africa. He seats on the Board of Main Street Technologies; distinguished ladies and gentlemen, your excellencies please receive Mr. Adeola.
Mr. Fola Adeola, Chairman MainOne Cable Company, Nigeria Your Excellency, Governor Fashola; Your Excellency, Governor Imoke; Your Excellency, past Governor Duke; Funke Opeke’s parents, investors in Main One; our friends, good morning. Of all the places in the world, this is where I would like to be now. Funke sent me some points to read to you today, but you know the story will never be sweet if I was just going to read the points. I just want to say it to everybody here, as it happened. The gentleman who introduced me said a few things about me and I want to thank him, but what he didn’t say is that I move a lot with mad people. People who go and look for trouble and when they have found the trouble, they domicile it at my doorstep and I get into the trouble forgetting that I am getting old. Such was my lot when I met Funke Opeke. I got an assignment through President Obasanjo at that time to go and see what we could make of Transcorp – that company and I said okay, this would offer some challenge, let’s see what we make of this company. And the first thing you do as a driver is to look for passengers. Who are my going to put in this bus so that we can go to the right place? And I sought out Funke Opeke and I said one thing what we want to we want to do with Transcorp is try and see what we could do with NITEL and I do not know anybody that knew communications as well as Funke Opeke. She had a job with MTN, now listen to how I came to the conclusion that she must be a mad person. She had a job with MTN, the biggest employer and I was telling people to come into Transcorp that didn’t even have NITEL and that we’d make a bid for NITEL. She agreed. We were paying her half of what she was earning in MTN but then, I painted picture of what NITEL could look like and I think that interested her more than the so much money that Tunde Folawiyo and co were giving her. So, we started this journey. Two months after we embarked on the journey, I got fired. So, there was no driver anymore, and I had brought so many people into NITEL, most them were to go into Transcorp most them wanted to come. So, I didn’t have any guilt at all. But, I said to myself, here I was jeje, I went to dislocate somebody who was somewhere else jeje, to come here and then I had to leave. So, in trying to solve my own guilt problem, I called Funke and I said to her, I am leaving and all these vision that we have shared together, don’t drop them. You carry on with them, whatever I can do on the side to assist, I will do. But, if they ever stop you from doing them, whatever crazy idea that you may have in your life, come and tell them to me, shoulder to shoulder, I will work with you and I left. About six months later, Funke called me and said she wanted to see me and I said, come. And she said, I want to remind you that once you told me that whatever crazy idea I had, I should come and tell you and you will work shoulder to shoulder with me. I said, eeem….mmmh! yes, yes. What idea do you have? All that time I was thinking of maybe we are going to set up a scratch card company. She then said to me, I want us to sink cable from Portugal to Lagos, 7,400 kilometres. I said you, you want you and I to sink cable. What would that cable do? She said look it is going to transform everything we’ve been doing and she started talking and I started talking; and then given my training, I had to ask one last question and I said: how much? She said it won’t cost more than 300 million dollars. And I said 300 what? She said million dollars. I said that’s the crazy idea that you have? She said yes. Then you must be crazy. Where are we going to raise 300 million dollars? She said, but that’s what you spend your life doing. All right, it is true that I said what I said to you, you can carry the cable and all I need to do is look for stupid people who want to throw their money away to do this. And that was how the journey began in 2007. The first stupid person I found was Asue Ighodalo. I had learnt that they’ve just been paid some fees and before he could do anything with the fees, let me see whether we can put a knife into this. So I sat him down, and I did not show him that I was afraid, I said now you have a lot of money, all this ones that you are doing, one day you are going to get tired, put money here. He said, yeah, yeah, it looks beautiful. A lawyer, they don’t think much…sorry governor. So, my first net into the water, caught a fish. Then, I said, who else do I know that is stupid? Then I said, I have one friend, his name is Dapo Osinusi. I thought of Segun Osin but he is an Ijebu man, the money will not come out, easily. We got Dapo and he said to me on the phone, oh! That sounds good and that’s how I knew that the guy must be stupid. He said, chairman, if you feel that the project is good, how much do you want me to put? I said Dapo, all the money you have. Do quickly because people are coming and I want to just tell a few people before so many people come. The door is open to you. Of course when I got to Segun Osin, that one said, ennh! Send me the papers. We had no papers. So I said let me do this one on the side we would send the papers later. Anyway, all we were trying to raise was $30 million. Now, the $30 million was ten per cent of project cost as Funke said, but before we could raise any dime from anybody offshore, we needed to have spent all the $30 million to do some things. So, we began on this suicidal journey, we had to spend other people’s $30 million and as we were spreading the net, we were catching more fishes. Tunde Folawiyo came in, Gbenga Oyebode came in, anybody, anybody, just come in. I even sent to some of the governors here today. I know they are too smart, they said these thing may not work o! so, they didn’t answer. But we got enough people that answered us and we raised the $30 million and the $30 million that we raised, is the basis for today. And I want to thank all those stupid people, who for sheer confidence …in fact, one of them said to me, the reason I am invested in this project is that it has a double bottom line – it looks like it’s profitable, but more importantly, it will transform the environment in which we have found ourselves and that’s why it is important to me. How right. And then Funke began this journey. This is the most intricate project I have ever been involved in – multi-jurisdictional, if you say Nigeria is complex, you have to do the same thing in Ghana, you have to do the same thing in Portugal, Canaries, everywhere we passed. In fact, in some places where we said, we are just passing on waters that are not your own, they said you must come and sign papers. In some places, they have sunk some pipes and for our cables to pass through next to those pipes, we have to come and sign agreements that if we broke those pipes, something will happen. If anybody thought that Joan of Arc was a fluke and that a woman cannot lead a war, I think they need to come and meet Funke Opeke. I still don’t know how she does it, but I was told by my professor at UCI that only mad people set up companies. It’s so much easier to collect salaries somewhere else and somebody would be bothering on how to pay you. And this woman, tell me… you know when a man does a major thing, Yorubas would say, Okunrin meta (man of rare courage), I don’t know what they say about women who have done big things. But, you know of Funke today in Yoruba- Obinrin bi okunrin (a woman equivalent of men). We had spent the $30 million and we decided to go and raise the big money. How did we solve this problem? We imposed on ourselves, in England or America, may be in South Africa, if you were going to do this project, you will find something like 50 per cent equity, 75 or 85 per cent debt. But we couldn’t do that. We are not shining enough, so we said that equity was going to be 50 per cent and debt was going to be 50 per cent. It was very, very onerous and the time Funke was gone to Tyco, she had got the project cut to $240 million. So, we were raising $120 million equity, $120 million of debt. Out of the $120 million equity, we had $30 million, and we were looking for $90 million. And we had to do it simultaneously. And the debt people are the nastiest set of people but some of them are here and are very friendly. Your Excellencies, we paid 13 per cent on top of Libor, because of our stinking, as far as they saw it. This is a project they would have done at Libor plus two, but you know, I have spent $30 million of stupid people’s money and we were beginning to attract foreign investment, we needed to show them that we would raise debt, we were beginning to raise the debt but we needed to show them that we are going to raise the equity. So, the lenders were waiting for the equity, the equity investors were waiting for our loan papers, at that point, if they had come and said it was 20 over Libor, we would take. What was important was that we wanted to see the project through. And then, we had to go to Abuja to beg them to release our license, allow us to go; we had to go to Ghana, allow us to go; we had to go to Lagos state government. One of the lenders said that unless we perfected the loan agreement, they were not going to release the money. Everybody knows that perfection in Lagos state, you know it is said in the Bible that it is easier for the camel to go through the eye of the needle, but they said they had to see that camel go through the eye of the needle. Governor Fashola, thank you for opening the needle’s eye so that the camel could pass through. Nobody was relenting. Funke was not relenting on their throat, the lenders were not relenting, the foreign investors were not relenting. But, eventually, otherwise we can tell this story for a year; everything was brought to bear and because Tyco realised that at the time they signed the contract, this could be ordinarily a $300 – 340 million job, but at that time it happened that they did not know how to deal with a woman and they accepted $240 million, but they put everything in the contract: if you don’t pay within 10 seconds of due time, we would revise the thing. Everything was based on threats and threats and threats. Did we always meet the targets? No. but we always found a way to work around it, and found a way to work around it, work around it. I am persuaded that if I didn’t tell you this story, you will never understand what has led to this. You don’t even see the cable, you have bought what you can’t see; if you build a house, you can see it but something is under the sea and that is what is going to provide your money. Ladies and gentlemen, we did it. MainOne is no longer a project, MainOne is a reality. One interesting line: as we were going on, and it was looking like this cable was going to see the light of the day, we started seeing some interesting adverts on television. This is the one! And people will call me, people who have invested money - is that our own? And I’d say no, our own is MainOne not the One. They said, yeah, they said they have landed and I would say to them, we haven’t landed, the day we land, we would tell you. Eh…en, eh…en! What if they land before us, so they land before us; but we haven’t landed and if we haven’t landed, so long as I am in this company, we are not going to tell anybody that we’ve landed. If you enter a room and say it is stuffy, you are feeling cold and somebody says the airconditioner is on, that’s not what you say, you say you are feeling hot. But today, we can feel the temperature of MainOne, even if you can see the advert of the one, you can feel our own temperature, we are here. We are not on the way, we are here. We are in Accra, we are in Portugal, we’ve linked up with London and we would use that facility, that infrastructure today while you are here. We have already seen Tunde Fashola dot com, Donald Duke was not bold enough to check Nigeria online dot com, but it’s there. Even if you have removed it, we can bring it up again. So, that is what we are doing here, we are celebrating what is possible. I need to trace all this back to President Obasanjo, he is not here today, but it was during his tenure as President that things got liberalised. And anyone of you or myself, can put together any infrastructure that has gone through policy and create things like this. So, wherever he is, I want on behalf of the Board of MainOne, thank him for the success of policy which has allowed us to do this. This is what government used to do and they use to do it at costs far, far beyond this. And at times, far, far longer than this. From conception to execution, we started in 2007, this is July 2010, everything is done, everything is working and we have written a letter of acceptance to Tyco that we have taken this subject to the six months moratorium that you give for projects such as this; and we are glad as Nigerians, as Africans, because we have a lot of African investments here, SIFO is here from South Africa, we have people from AFC who are here, who also put their money. They are slightly smarter than the stupid ones, because they allow the stupid money to go in. I’d like to thank personally, individual investors who make up Main Street Technologies who put in their money into this. And I’d like to wish you many happy returns of the money. All I was supposed to come here and do, is to welcome you to the launch of MainOne; I welcome you. Thank you. MC: Bernard Logan, Commercial Director, MainOne Cable from London Allistair: Logan: Carlos: Logan: Hector: Logan: Rosemary: Logan: Louisia: Logan: MC: Dr. Bashir Gwandu, acting EVC, NCC: Senator Liyel Imoke, Governor, Cross River state: Gov Babatunde Raji Fashola (SAN), Lagos state: MC: Funke Opeke, CEO MainOne Cable Company: Thank you all very much. Your Excellency, the Governor of Lagos state; Your Excellency, the Governor of Cross River state; the immediate past Governor, thank you very much; distinguished guests, Dr. Gwandu, the acting Executive Vice Chairman of the NCC, thank you for being with us today. First of all, I want to thank God for making this happen, for giving me the vision and provided the strength and the grace, as our chairman said. To make it look easy as we have arrived at this point, today. First, I have to thank him, Mr. Fola Adeola, he doesn’t quite describe how much he has done. I thank him and his family for all the investment in MainOne. The first time I met Mr. Adeola, he said, what do we tell our children, if we don’t try? That made me stuck with him and initially it was on an advisory basis, and it has brought us to this point today. For everything you’ve done, thank you. Next I want to thank Mr. Asue Ighodalo and his family, because as I dragged the children, dragged him on the other side he is always sitting down and having this advisory meetings as to how we are going to make this happen. I must say for never making me feel as if I was asking for too much, I thank both of you. I thank the founding shareholders, Mr. Dapo Osinusi and Mrs. Helen Osinusi. Who kept writing those cheques; when it got difficult and we were really pressed, Dr. Osin remained a pillar of moral support, I thank you. My sister and my friend, because my family had to put some money on the table, too; and her husband, Mr. and Mrs. Ogunrinde, I thank you. In addition, I want to thank Benet Logan, he came on, as he said I met him at the Golf Club; as a consultant in those early days and he quickly became my right hand person. A lot of long hours, a lot of vacations abandoned, cut short as we tried to make this happen. He is not here today, but Benet, I sincerely thank you. As the chairman said, at some point the founding shareholders were meeting in his home office, I don’t know how many times a week, we were drawing up lists and calling everybody we knew, about 50 people joined hand with us to raise that $30 million in Main Street Technologies. Mr. Adeola mentioned some of them, but I cannot mention all the names here but you know yourselves, Mainstreet investors stand up, without you there would be no MainOne, and I really thank you. To the institutional shareholders and lenders, I really thank you; I will just run through you quick, I recall just all the works of getting through your credit committees and Board approvals, and as we stuck trying to raise this money but confidence to take it forward, I thank you African Finance Corporation, Solomon is not here today, Tarry, Nanna, all those endless negotiating sessions, I thank you all very much. Pan Africa Infrastructure Development Fund, SIFO, Macmillan from the Board from South Africa, I cannot thank you enough, you believed and worked with us, here we are today SIFO; FBN Capital, you co-invested with PIDF we got you on board, thank you Taiwo Okeowo, Ernest Makanju, Akin Marinho, Bayo Adeleke, I really thank you. Skye Bank, right at very first inception, as we trying to raise money they started extending us credit, based on personal recognition of the founders, it’s a lot more difficult in the Nigerian banking environment today; Skye Bank is the financial institution that made MainOne and I am really grateful. We do have other international lenders that I want to thank, the African Development Bank, they extended to us $55 million and worked with the rest arrangements to make the facility happen and the German Development Bank which came in along with them in an African finance partnership to make additional funds available so we could close our funding gaps, yes we did have a funding gap, we thank you. A project like just don’t happen, in this room today are numerous advisers, lawyers, project managers, finance consultants, environmental specialists, civil contractors, telecommunications contractors, for all our endless demands just to get it right and on time, we thank you for your professionalism. To Tyco Telecommunications, we cannot say thank you enough, as the chairman said, there were moments when it got really difficult and we missed those payments but they kept working. They actually sailed the vessel with all the cable across the Atlantic ready to install the cable when we had not made necessary payments. Tyco, we thank you. I want to thank the team, when we work with international partners, they couldn’t believe how many of us existed, they couldn’t believe how small our offices were, and they would look in and say, is it. And the early team that joined us, the early believers; who were leaving their professional jobs to come and had worked with me to make this happen. Dosike, Michael, Kehinde, Jimmy Olaitan, Johnny; all the new staff that joined us – Misa, Jumoke, Kazeem, Adesua, Kola, all the wonderful people, I just really thank you. We made it. Thank you very much. For these financing, we needed customers to sign up, we were a company that had never earned any money and we were raising $240 million. That meant that customers needed to sign up and show that they were indeed willing to buy services from us. To those who put the money down, so indeed we could finance this cable and are taken up your services today, I see Mr. Steven Evans of Etisalat right in front, MTN also subscribed to the cable and several other operators sometimes I believe you are in the room, we thank you for your early commitment to the MainOne Cable System. We couldn’t do it without you. To all our government officials, especially to our host government, Lagos state, we thank you. Various officials across the state, the governor had to work with us everything from land acquisition, permits, working with the water ways, different authorities to make this happen and I must say Governor we have had a large cooperation and support from members of your team and understanding and they made this happen, so we thank you. We thank the NCC, we got a pioneer license in Nigeria, we thank the NCA in Ghana likewise for giving us a pioneering license clearly it took some work but they also recognised and see through our vision and worked with us. One of the things the chairman always say when we have this Board meetings is that if we get an absolute no from one of these government agencies, and we had taken these money from the Mainstreet investors; what are we going to do? So, we always recognised with the governments agencies that we worked with and it was so critical that we get those approvals, so we thank you all. We wished doing business in Africa was not so difficult, government officials have the power to change this, even it is a journey, you made it happen for us. We really wish it was a little more easier for others who are coming along. To the press, especially the Nigerian press, you do not do a project like this without getting the word out, building confidence in the investors, in the market, communicating progress so people remain in it in terms of what you want to do. And I must say that the Nigerian press, even when we had a one room office, we were getting front page coverage based on the power of our vision. From the Guardian I think which gave us the very first story, we thank you as well as all the other major press that has continued to highlight the achievements of MainOne. Last but not the least, I want to go to the personal side of this, I thank my parents, Professor and Mrs. L.K Opeke, I just want to thank you for all those prayers and encouragement. For my Pastor, who knew all those difficult moments and would quietly pray along with me; I thank you. For my siblings, my son who allowed me, my friends who allowed me the space to do this work, I really thank you. I might not have been there, but you encouraged me, all those holidays that I totally forgotten something was going on, you were patient with me, I thank you. I am truly blessed to have this opportunity to contribute to the development of Africa. You know when I go out on the street and I witness the number of our young people who do not have the skills, the employment..I think we can make the difference. As this became truly difficult, I just said, Lord I am truly privileged just to be able to do this. I thank you all. If I have missed anyone today, it is not deliberate. Everywhere we have turned, people have made it possible for us. Thank you. |
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