Abiodun Bakare Named 2015 Tech Business Development Manager of the Year

By Tosin Clegg

Abiodun Bakare, a systems engineer and technology strategist with over a decade of experience in enterprise IT and business optimization, has been awarded the prestigious Tech Business Development Manager of the Year at the 2015 Nigeria Technology Innovation Awards (NiTA). The accolade recognizes his pioneering work in integrating backend automation with business growth strategies in two of Nigeria’s key sectors—energy and technology services.

The award was presented during the NiTA Conference & Awards Gala, held at the Eko Convention Centre in Lagos on December 5, 2015. The annual event, attended by leaders across ICT, oil and gas, fintech, and telecom sectors, celebrates high-impact innovators who bridge the gap between technical execution and enterprise development.
Bakare’s selection was based on his career-defining contributions between 2005 and 2015, particularly during his tenure as SQL Database Administrator and Business Development Executive at Tanzila Petroleum (2005–2007) and later as Chief Strategy Officer at Salt Lake Megavision (2008–2015). In both roles, he led transformative automation initiatives that revolutionized internal IT workflows while advancing broader organizational goals.

“Abiodun Bakare exemplifies what this award is about,” said Funmilayo Okonkwo, Chair of the NiTA Awards Committee. “He developed intelligent solutions that directly enhanced business outcomes—a rare combination of deep technical expertise and visionary leadership.”
While at Tanzila Petroleum, Bakare created a proprietary PowerShell-based SQL Server automation framework that consolidated more than 25 routine database operations—including backup verification, failover testing, and real-time system diagnostics—into a single, integrated process. This system replaced error-prone manual scripts and slashed recovery times from several hours to less than 40 minutes. It also reduced the company’s dependency on external IT consultants and minimized service interruptions in data-driven operations critical to oilfield logistics and reporting.

“I wasn’t just building a script—I was building business resilience,” Bakare said in his acceptance speech. “We needed tools that could adapt to our environment and reduce risk without costing a fortune.”
After leaving Tanzila in 2007, Bakare took his innovations to Salt Lake Megavision, where he refined the automation system into a scalable framework tailored to the firm’s nationwide logistics and customer data operations. His model helped Salt Lake transition to fully automated database health monitoring and reduced overhead associated with maintenance, compliance, and reporting. His business-focused enhancements resulted in faster service delivery, fewer system outages, and significant savings in administrative costs.

The influence of Bakare’s framework has not remained confined to his employers. According to industry insiders, versions of his system design have since been referenced or implemented by independent organizations in Abuja, Port Harcourt, Enugu, and Kaduna, especially among regional logistics companies, private hospitals, and mid-sized financial technology firms. Several Chief Technology Officers from firms in Nigeria’s middle market have credited his technical documentation and workshop engagements as key resources in designing their own automated database recovery protocols.

“In ten years, I’ve seen Abiodun’s work turn from an internal solution into an industry reference point,” said Ibrahim Oyenuga, a senior IT auditor familiar with Bakare’s deployments. “His model has been requested by at least three companies I’ve worked with. That’s the kind of organic influence most engineers never achieve.”
Bakare’s work has also had policy implications. During his time at Salt Lake Megavision, his performance reports were shared with state-level infrastructure advisory committees exploring automation options for public systems in Ogun and Rivers States. He has since consulted informally for digital transformation teams working on public-private projects involving data reliability frameworks.

With this award, Abiodun Bakare is recognized not only as a technical expert but also as a strategic leader whose innovations have had ripple effects across Nigeria’s technology landscape.
“It’s not about writing code—it’s about solving problems that matter,” Bakare concluded.