Ayotunde Coker Becomes Open Access Data Centre New CEO

Bukola Olanrewaju July 4, 2022 TECHNOLOGY, Telecom Leave a comment

African ICT infrastructure company Wiocc Group has appointed Ayotunde Coker as CEO of its data centre business, Open Access Data Centres (OADC), with immediate effect.

Nigerian-born Ayotunde Coker has 35 years of telecommunications experience in Africa, Europe, the US and Asia and, for the past eight years, has been CEO of Rack Centre, a well-known data centre business in West Africa.

The appointment follows Wiocc’s raising of US$200-million in new funding late last year to build data centres and other infrastructure on the continent.

Coker will be based on Lagos, Nigeria, which Wiocc said is a central geographic location in Africa.

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The capital raise – made up of both debt and equity – will also be used to expand Wiocc’s connectivity within Africa and internationally, the company said at the time.

Cape IV, a fund managed by private equity firm African Capital Alliance, provided the equity funding. The debt portion came from the International Finance Corporation, Proparco and the Emerging Africa Infrastructure Fund managed by Ninety One. Verdant Capital acted as financial advisor to Wiocc for the equity portion.

“Having secured $200-million in funding at the end of 2021, we are now engaged in transforming Africa’s digital infrastructure with the most extensive deployment ever in Africa of open-access national, regional and edge data centres,” Wiocc Group CEO Chris Wood said in a statement on Monday.

“Ayotunde Coker’s depth and breadth of experience and leadership, together with his stature and contacts in the African data centre industry will, I’m sure, be instrumental in ensuring the company’s success,” Wood added.

OADC said Coker’s leadership would support and accelerate the construction and operation of a pan-African network of Tier III certified data centre facilities and a unique core-to-edge open-access ecosystem.

Coker will be based on Lagos, Nigeria, which Wiocc said is a central geographic location in Africa.

Last month, OADC said it plans to establish 100 “edge” data centres in smaller centres across South Africa by the end of the year. Twenty-six of these facilities will be live by August. Edge data centres are smaller than centralised facilities and take Internet services closer to end users, reducing latency and improving performance.

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The roll-out, OADC said, would support the deployment by telecoms operators and Internet service providers of fibre and 5G services into smaller towns and regions.

“This is a dynamic period for businesses in Africa, with transformation driving rapid expansion of the continent’s digital infrastructure,” Ayotunde Coker said regarding his appointment as CEO.

“I am excited to be joining OADC, which is set to play a huge role in establishing and growing the pan-African digital infrastructure and cloud ecosystem that will underpin this expansion.”

Coker said OADC would support cloud operators, content providers, the wholesale community, and major enterprises in extending their global reach and operations.

Coker has more than 35 years of international experience in the industry. For the past eight years, he has worked as CEO and managing director of Rack Centre — a carrier-neutral Tier III data centre in Lagos, Nigeria.