Equinix Reveals Fears Of Operating In Nigeria After $320m MainOne Acquisition

Equinix, a United States based company that acquired Nigeria’s MainOne is already expressing concerns over its exposure to the country’s foreign exchange woes.

The US based company on Tuesday announced an ongoing acquisition of MainOne Cable Company which was founded by Funke Opeke back in 20210.

MainOne is a company that provides network solutions to businesses in Nigeria and West Africa, while Equinix is a U.S. multinational specializing in internet connection data centers.

But the acquiring company is worried about Nigeria’s foreign exchange instability and other regulatory bottlenecks.

Judith Gardiner, VP Growth and Emerging Markets at Equinix said the company did not just rush into the Nigerian market.

Nigeria has been facing currency instability leading to the devaluation of the naira from N379 per dollar to about N410 in May. At the unofficial market, the currency is trading at N570 per dollar.

There are also renewed pressure from the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank to further devalue the currency.

“Have we any concerns? Yes. I think whenever we enter a new territory, we are always cautious. The obvious ones from our initial plan is the currency is always something that we have had challenges with and also in other markets and we have figured it out,” she said in an interview on Arise TV on Wednesday.

“It is also an emerging market so, there is some laws and regulations that need to catch up with where we need to go on data sovereignty and data transformation. And we are probably going to see those accelerate, because we see such demands for that locally in West Africa.

“If we move too fast, we will make mistakes. It has taken probably about six months, from when we started looking at MainOne to where we are now. It’s been a very efficient process.”