Adebayo Akande

Adebayo Akande is the Special Assistant to the Oyo State Governor on Information Communications Technology and E-Governance and the Director General of the Oyo State Infrastructure Management and Control Agency.

Prior to joining public service, his experience cuts across technology, media and entertainment. He founded Orb Solutions, a full-service technology company that specializes in the areas of managed technology services, IT support as well as web and mobile app development. He also founded West Midlands CBT Ltd., a technology services company in 2013 which conducts examinations for Nigeria’s premier University – the University of Ibadan, National Open University of Nigeria, JAMB amongst others. Bayo made a pivot into the media/entertainment space, and co-founded two radio stations, Splash FM and Lagelu FM with a combined daily listenership of about 2.5 million people. He continues to serve as a director on the board of these radio stations.

In 2019, Bayo was appointed Special Assistant to the Oyo State Governor on Information Communications Technology and E-Governance. In his role, he is responsible for technology development and growth in Oyo state and digitizing the state’s public service processes. As the SA on ICT & E-governance, he masterminded the creation of the Oyo state job portal, which has processed over 700,000 job applications for the state. He facilitated the Open Contracting Data standard application (OCDS) platform which has positioned Oyo state as the pace setter in transparent contracting processes. Oyo State, under his office has begun business process automation, which when complete will completely digitize the state Government’s file approval and memo systems. In the area of human capacity building, his office has organised annual trainings catering to over 5000 civil servants. All Computer science teachers in the state have also undergone extensive training to enable computer programming to be introduced into the Oyo State school curriculum, persons living with disabilities and in rural settlements are often trained on basic digital and tech skills. Under his office, the State conducted Biometric verification of all civil servants including staff of all Oyo state tertiary institutions. This birthed the Resident Registration initiative which is currently on-going in the state.

Bayo also serves as the Director General of the Oyo State Infrastructure Management and Control Agency, where he oversees all telecoms and utility infrastructure regulation in the state. Under Bayo’s leadership, Oyo State has recorded large fibre deployments across the state due to the development of favourable policies introduced by him. The Oyo State Executive Council has also recently passed the harmonized fibre infrastructure policy, which will enable even more fibre deployment across the state, reducing multiple excavations of public roads by infracos and increasing internet penetration. In 2021 and 2022, Bayo Akande on behalf of the Oyo State Government won numerous awards at the National Council of Digital Economy, including – the best State in ICT Infrastructure, best state in ICT Human Capacity development, and overall best state in Digital technology.

Bayo holds a BEng in Chemical Engineering from the University of Sheffield and an MSc in Business and Management from Aston University, Birmingham.