MainOne appoints Ivorian GM to drive Francophone expansion
MainOne, West Africa’s leading connectivity and data centre solutions provider has appointed Etienne Kouadio Doh as General Manager, Francophone West Africa. In his new role, Kouadio Doh will lead the company’s business development activities in Cote D’Ivoire as well as oversee its expansion into new Francophone markets.
Commenting on Kouadio Doh’s appointment, MainOne’s Regional Executive responsible for West Africa, Kazeem Oladepo, said: “We are excited to welcome Etienne to MainOne! His experience, leadership and knowledge in the telecom sector will create a significant value for the company, strengthen our footprint in the West Africa Francophone economic zone and realise our vision for a connected continent via the provision of reliable and affordable open-access connectivity solutions to telecoms providers, governments and corporates.”
Before joining MainOne, Etienne Kouadio Doh had contributed to the revitalization and promotion of the Free Trade Zone Technology Park of Grand-Bassam, as Chief Operating Officer of VITIB S.A, the public & private joint Company in charge of promoting and managing the ICT & Biotechnology Free Trade Zone of Côte d’Ivoire. He was also Managing Director for Alink Telecom in Niger, Ghana and in Cote d’Ivoire between 2006 to 2013.
Kouadio said: “I am excited to join the MainOne team and be part of its success story in Africa. The company has established itself as a leading player in the broadband and data centre space in Africa and I look forward to further strengthening and growing MainOne in Cote D’Ivoire and other Francophone countries, through strategic partnerships and market expansions.”
Kouadio Doh is an ICT professional with over 20 years’ experience in marketing, sales and ICT management. He is an alumnus of one of the top business schools in Abidjan, Ecole Supérieure de Commerce d’Abidjan (ESCA) and has deep knowledge of the West African Telecoms market.
This news follows an earlier announcement that MainOne had received a license to expand national and international connectivity services in Cote D’Ivoire and concluded the extension of its subsea cable network to Cote D’Ivoire and Senegal towards stimulating broadband development and ICT development in the countries and across the region. The company announced the expansion of its network into Cote D’Ivoire and the deployment of 180km optical fibre between the branching unit of the subsea cable extension into Cote D’Ivoire and a landing station within the country in addition to a similar deployment plan for Senegal.
MainOne is committed to deepening broadband access via fibre infrastructure and data centres across West Africa. With service delivery in 10 countries including Nigeria, Ghana, Cote D’Ivoire, Burkina Faso, Togo, Cameroun, Benin, Niger, Senegal and Chad, MainOne operates a 100G international submarine cable system which guarantees highly reliable connectivity to support the growing demand for Internet access and bandwidth-intensive applications such as eCommerce, Content providers, OTT players and electronic banking and payment services via 3/4G mobile networks. The MainOne Submarine cable was the first privately owned cable in West Africa spanning 7000KM with a capacity of 4.96 TBPS to connect West Africa to Europe via a landing in Portugal and multiple routes to London, Paris and Amsterdam.
