Oyaje Idoko – Top 10 CEOs of 2021

Mr. Oyaje Idoko is an entrepreneur and founder and chief executive officer, Layer3 – one of the leading IT companies in Nigeria. He is an expert in design and network engineering and led the team that built the first fixed wireless broadband network in Nigeria.

He has built a wealth of experience in the information technology and services industry. Combining rare skills with strong entrepreneurial capability, Idoko has built a business that serves many banks in Nigeria.

His company runs a 24-hour network management and support centre that provides round the clock remote monitoring and support services for its customers’ IT and network infrastructures. The centre also serves the company’s expansive metro fiber network infrastructure that guarantees optimal performance and quick fault resolutions.

Idoko established Layer3 in 2005 powered by a large pool of technically certified and experienced experts that are behind the company’s wide service reach to several African countries. His aim is to place his company’s services at the forefront of clients’ business transformation ambitions.

“We combine our knowledge of world-class technology solutions, in addition to our partnership with some of the global technology providers to deliver exceptional value for our clients. Our solutions cut across all sectors and include the innovation of the data centre, software, server and storage systems, mobile device management, security and network infrastructure solutions and access solutions, including broadband and VPN services”, the company stated in its service profile.


Layer3 is counted among the fastest growing network and security infrastructure companies in West Africa, providing award-winning services, including managed and cloud services, network security, IT infrastructure management, virtualization and mobile device management solutions.

The company assures of the capability of its unique model that integrates best-of-breed technologies from global leaders such as Juniper Networks, Blue Coat, Polycom, AirWatch, F5, Extreme Networks and VMware, coupled with its next-generation metro fiber networks to offer unparalleled services and after sales support to even the most demanding customers. 

It offers access services, managed services, network and infrastructure services and Layer3 Cloud.

“For 15 years, we have supported organisations with the technologies they need to scale and thrive, in line with our mission to make organisations and individuals excel through technology,” Idoko said.

The Layer3’s boss started his entrepreneurial journey quite early at the age of 12 and worked barely for five years after graduation from the university before setting up the company that has been running since 2005.

 He is a man of special skill, so gifted that he would programme over 1000 lines of code at the age of 12 – a ring of the techie badge he wears today. He obtained a Bachelor’s degree in communications engineering from the Federal University of Technology, Owerri, Nigeria in 1998.

He moved on to kick off his formal career as a network engineer with Prodigy International. Shortly after, he led the team that built the first fixed wireless broadband network in Nigeria at Startech Connections.

He attended Stanford University Graduate School of Business Executive Program for Growing Companies in 2015 and also the Stanford Seed Transformation Program Certificate in 2019.

Layer3’s services are utilised by organizations in various parts of the country as well as in other African countries. This means domesticating the hosting of data generated by clients in the country. Idoko points out that this is the trend across the world where countries are increasingly holding data generated within their domain in data centres located within their borders.

He is drawing attention to the need for organizations in the public and private sectors in Nigeria to follow the global trend. “The whole notion about where your data resides is something we need to take very seriously.

“There’s been a lot of talk about data being the new oil. If we say that data is the new oil, why would we want someone else to be in custody of our ‘oil’?”

He said Nigeria is disadvantaged in many respects by failing to locate vital IT infrastructures locally. He is quite confident that Nigeria’s economy would realise significant benefits by leveraging home-grown IT facilities instead of relying on foreign cloud service providers.

“We see the impact of this in the amount of foreign exchange leaving the country as payment for these services. But we have the infrastructure to provide these services locally. We think it’s important to take charge of what is our own,” Idoko said.

The company’s solutions cut across all sectors and include the innovation of the data centre, software, server and storage systems, mobile device management, security and network infrastructure solutions and access solutions, including broadband and VPN services.

The services have impacted critical economic sectors such as education, health, and start-up innovation ecosystem through its corporate social responsibility projects and interventions. The company has continually supported the Nigeria Centre for Disease Control with free bandwidth, which has enabled the agency to strengthen its communications and response capacities in the battle against the COVID-19 pandemic.

The company’s top notch services are supported by its combination of world-class technology solutions knowhow with its partnership with some of the global technology providers, which has it to deploy solutions that minimize risks, maximize flexibility and optimize the use of capital with results that beat customers’ expectations.

Idoko describes his work as meaningful and transformative. “There is evidence of this in the wins that our solutions have helped our clients achieve. We want the coming years to yield even greater successes for them, and for us,” he said.