Bosun Tijani is widely described as one of the most influential figures in African tech with a career path dating back to 2003 when he worked as a Business Development Manager with DeliveryKing. He subsequently worked as Deployment Lead (Africa) with Hewlett Packard (HP) Global Micro-enterprises Acceleration Programme (GMEAP) for about a year.
There, he was managing the ODel learning center at the Africa Virtual University in Kenya and completing the deployment of the HP, IEEE and University of Ibadan telecentre in Nigeria within the period, according to Nairametrics.
The Nigerian also worked at the International Trade Centre (UNCTAD/WTO) as the ICT Consultant, worked as a Project Manager with INNOTEX and also joined the Nigerian Institute of Medical Research as an Adjunct Research Fellow, where his research focused on applied digital epidemiology.
It wasn’t until 2010 that Tijani decided to pursue a path toward becoming an entrepreneur. He co-founded Co-creation HUB (CcHUB) with Femi Longe, which became Nigeria’s first open living lab and pre-incubation space designed to be a multi-functional, multi-purpose space where work to catalyze creative social tech ventures take place, it says on its website.
Co-creation HUB is essentially a place for technologists, social entrepreneurs, government, tech companies, impact investors and hackers in and around Lagos to co-create new solutions to the many social problems in Nigeria.
According to TechCabal, technology companies such as TechCabal, Fora, Andela, and TechPoint at some point began as ideas at CcHUB, made their first hires or worked out of the hub’s space in their early years.
“We wanted a platform to support ordinary young Nigerians with ideas who believe that they can create a solution to a problem,” Tijani said about the CcHUB, TechCabal noted.
In 2019, Tijani started running the largest tech network in Africa following CcHUB’s acquisition of iHub. This made him the CEO of both organizations, including their startup incubation programs and VC activities from Nigeria to Kenya, according to TechCrunch.
“The CcHub/iHub nexus will also use its size to leverage more partnerships. Tijani and the team have already mastered gaining collaborations with big African and global tech names, such as MainOne and Facebook,” the outlet reported at the time.
Born on July 20, 1977, Tijani has a diploma in Computer Science and (a B.Sc.) in Economics from the University of Jos. In 2003, he joined the Lagos Business School, Accenture and Junior Achievement for an MBA Course, Venture in Management.
Tijani also has an MSc in Information systems and Management from the Warwick Business School, did the Innovation for Economic Development executive program at the Harvard Kennedy School, and also recently added a Ph.D. in Innovation & Economic Development at the University of Leicester.
First published in Face-2face Africa, https://face2faceafrica.com/article/a-look-at-how-nigerias-bosun-tijani-became-ceo-of-the-largest-tech-network-in-africa1234