Olatunbosun Tijani (born 20 July, 1977) is a Nigerian-British entrepreneur, co-founder and CEO of Co-Creation Hub (CcHUB), the leading Pan-African innovation and technology centre. Co-Creation Hub works at the forefront of accelerating the application of innovation and social capital for a better society.
Listen to Dr Bosun Tijani’s rich resume as presented to the Nigerian Senate during his screening
Tijani is widely acknowledged as a pioneer and industry leader in the African technology ecosystem and was named as one of the 100 Most Influential People on the continent by New Africa Magazine. He initiated the first visit of Mark Zuckerberg to Nigeria in August 2016 as part of efforts to place Africa on the global technology map. He has also hosted other global technology leaders in Nigeria, including former Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey in 2019 and most recently in June, 2023, hosted a fireside chat with Microsoft founder and co-Chair of the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, Bill Gates. In 2019, under his leadership, CcHUB acquired Kenya’s iHub and launched the CcHUB Design Lab in Kigali, Rwanda in the same year.[9] He has also expanded CcHUB’s Pan-African footprint into Southern Africa by opening CcHUB Namibia, the main tech hub in Windhoek, Namibia in 2023.
I want to help raise a new generation of people in Africa with creative confidence and lifelong interest in science and tech. The folks that will take all we’ve done to a whole new level
– Dr Bosun Tijani
Tijani is also currently an associate researcher at the Wits School of Governance, with research interests in collaborative projects that inform practice through support to policymakers, inventors and entrepreneurs while advancing theories in innovation systems and governance.
Early life and education
Tijani was born in Agege, Lagos, Nigeria and spent his formative years there before moving to Abeokuta, Nigeria for his secondary education. In 1996, he then went on to Jos, Nigeria to study at the University of Jos where he first started off studying for a diploma in Computer Science before going on to study Economics, graduating with a Bachelor’s degree in 2002. He later obtained an MSc in Information Systems and Management from the Warwick Business School, United Kingdom in 2007.
In 2023, Tijani earned a PhD in innovation and economic development from the School of Business, University of Leicester. His doctoral research focussed on contributing to a better understanding of how the network perspective to innovation capacity could provide a contextually relevant framework for explaining the adoption and adaptation of innovation in developing countries and specifically offer an alternative path to how African countries could effectively organize their innovation ecosystems.
Tijani has also been part of the Innovation for Economic Development executive programme at Harvard Kennedy School in 2013 as well as being a 2014 Draper Hills Fellow of the Centre for Democracy, Development and the Rule of Law (CDDRL) at Stanford University.
Career
International Trade Centre
Before CcHUB, Tijani worked with the International Trade Centre, Geneva, Switzerland as a Fellow, researching on trade development with particular emphasis on enterprise management development. During this period, he successfully led the development and deployment of a web-marketing and information services programme in Ghana between March and September 2006 and subsequently in Uganda and Kenya which recorded positive outputs. The programme was deployed in Ethiopia and later extended to South Africa and Tanzania.
Hewlett Packard
At Hewlett Packard, he successfully managed the deployment of the ODel learning centre at the Africa Virtual University in Kenya and completed the deployment of the HP, IEEE and University of Ibadan telecentre in Nigeria. He also initiated and completed the deployment of the HP Micro-enterprise Acceleration Programme learning centre at the Lagos Business School in Nigeria and provided recognizable support to its deployment in Egypt and Morocco.
Pera Innovation Network
Tijani would later move to Pera Innovation Network (PERA) in 2007 where he served as the European Innovation Manager. At PERA, he led the coordination of innovation agencies across Europe. In different capacities, he was responsible for managing the Pan-European Research Network of Universities participating in the Framework Programme 7 as well as the INNOTEX Project – Am European Commission funded project for the development of a cross cluster best practice platform for entrepreneurial innovation for the technical textile sector (United Kingdom, Spain, Estonia and Denmark).
Co-Creation Hub
In 2010, Tijani co-founded CcHUB, a technology innovation centre dedicated to accelerating the application of social capital and technological innovation for economic prosperity. In the early years, he led a number of social technology projects including Lagos Innovation Hotspots and the i-HQ concept (the umbrella initiative for Yaba – the fastest-growing tech cluster in Africa), which involved working with MainOne Cable and the Lagos State Government to lay fibre optic cables in the Yaba area of Lagos accelerating the growth of the area into becoming the home of technology startups in Nigeria. Under his leadership, CcHUB has driven the growth of social innovation and influenced businesses and initiatives in different sectors including – environment (Wecyclers), fiscal transparency (BudgIT), e-commerce (Traclist), Healthcare (LifeBank), education (re-learn), wellness (Truppr) and transportation (GoMyWay), civic activity (GoVOTE), online and cybersecurity (SafeOnline) among others.
He has also driven the growth of social innovation using technology, producing initiatives and businesses that have influenced; environment, fiscal transparency, e-commerce, Healthcare, education, wellness and transportation. His later work with CcHUB focussed on the company’s expansion into other parts of Africa and positioning the business as a vital catalyst for the African tech ecosystem promoting collaboration, knowledge sharing, and the development of groundbreaking solutions to local and global challenges. This has been done in collaboration with a number of global partners and founders who have backed his work extensively.
Other work
In addition to his ongoing work with CcHUB, Tijani is also actively involved in a number of initiatives within and outside the tech ecosystem
Truppr
He launched Truppr, a social platform that allows fitness enthusiasts organise events, or join in on, amateur sporting events within their locality
StemCafe
In 2019, he founded STEM Cafe, a maker lab for kids and young adults aged 5-18 with operations in Lagos, Kigali and Nairobi.
Board Memberships
Tijani sits on the boards of several companies including Taeillo, an African e-commerce furniture and lifestyle brand and LifeBank, a healthcare platform dedicated to delivering critical medical supplies to hospitals, where he serves as Board Chair
EU Advisory Group on Research and Innovation
In 2021, Tijani was engaged as a member of a high-level expert advisory group focused on advising the European Commission on how to mainstream research and innovation through Africa-Europe Cooperation.
Desmond Tutu Fellowship
He was selected in 2017 by the African Leadership Institute to be a part of the prestigious Desmond Tutu Leadership Fellowship. The fellowship recognises exceptional emerging African leaders for their contribution to development on the continent.
Personal life
Tijani resides in Lagos, Nigeria and Leicester, United Kingdom with his wife, Moji Tijani and three children. He is an avid fitness enthusiast and football lover. He owns the under-listed companies:
https://ihub.co.ke/
https://gc.fund/
https://stemcafe.io/
https://cchub.africa/
