Bosun Tijani

February 27, 2020

Speaker

Bosun Tijani

Founder and Chief Executive of Co-Creation Hub Nigeria (CcHUB)

Session: “Financing Africa’s Innovation Ecosystems: New Models, New Instruments”

March 12, 2020

09:30 – 10:30

Olatunbosun Tijani ‘Bosun’ is the founder and Chief Executive of Co-Creation Hub Nigeria (CcHUB). CcHUB which stands at the forefront of the fastest moving technology industry trends has maintained its focus of shaping the economy and the future of Africa. He is an innovation expert with global depth of the technology industry. He has invested the last 15 years evangelizing an industry-wide shift to innovation technology and has helped position start-ups as the anchor of the tech ecosystem in Nigeria.

With numerous successes across Africa, he championed the growth of start-up communities whose savvy models have in turn motivated partners globally to embrace the technology revolution sweeping across Africa. He has been celebrated as the “leader” and initiator of the Yaba Technology cluster.

Over the years, ‘Bosun has built a solid reputation for process and product innovation, developed business strategies, incubated new business models, and rolled out channel programs.

Prior to CcHUB, he honed his depth of experience by designing and managing profitable business models for high-end enterprise solutions working with ITC – HP in Geneva, Switzerland on projects supporting African SMEs to leverage technology to grow their businesses. As European Innovation Manager at PERA; He led the networking and coordination of the largest European Innovation of Network where he managed a team that standardised the commercialisation of Knowledge for National Agencies across Europe.

‘Bosun is passionate about creating and leading platforms that have provided aspiring innovators the visibility and credibility they need from an industry-wide transition of technology challenges to a culture of Entrepreneurship. In his role, he has driven the rapid advancement of collaboration and innovation in the technology landscape in Nigeria. This has been acknowledged locally and globally with accolades including the most recent 100 Most Influential People on the continent by New Africa Magazine. Under his leadership, CcHUB has driven the growth of social innovation using technology, producing groundbreaking initiatives and businesses that have influenced; Environment (Wecyclers), Social advocacy (Budgit), E-commerce (Traclist), Healthcare (LifeBank), Education (re:learn) , Wellness (Truppr) and Transportation (GoMyWay).

Most recently, He secured support from top global giants in the technology and development sector including, Opera, Google and Omidyar Network. This support and partnerships also culminated in the visit of Mark Zuckerberg to the Hub on his first ever visit to Sub-Saharan Africa. Embracing the core values of advocacy, innovation and growth, ‘Bosun pitched the concept of the i-HQ and secured the installation of fibre optic cables in the Yaba area as well as long term investment and support from both private sector and the government. He was a member of the UK Advisory Committee on Digital Access Africa, an advisor and a Committee member for NESG on Science and Technology and to advisor to the Lagos Innovation Advisory Council under Governor Fashola’s administration. As an avid fitness enthusiast and a quiet revolutionary, ‘Bosun counts among his humble feats; climbing to the top of Mt. Kilimanjaro and winning his local Abbey Park community football league in Leicester. In 2014, he launched Truppr; an active lifestyle platform with focus on fitness and nutrition. It has become a leading online fitness community in over 20 cities across Africa and Europe. ‘Bosun Tijani holds a Bachelors degree in Economics, a Masters degree in Information Systems and Management from Warwick University. He is also a fellow of the Centre for Democracy and Rule of Law at the prestigious Stanford University. He is happily married with two children.