Oyaje Idoko
Co-founder and Chief Executive Officer

With over eleven years experience in the telecom industry, Oyaje Idoko is a professional in voice and data network design, implementation and management. He was part of the team responsible for setting up two telecommunication companies in Nigeria and held high level management positions in those companies. During his tenure as the Head of Operations of Startech Connections, he led the team that designed and built the first 3.5Ghz FWA WIMAX in Nigeria. Oyaje served as a World Bank Consultant on telecommunications, and still serves as consultant of the Gerson Lehrman Group, a global group of professional consultants in varying fields of study.

He is an alumnus of the United States Telecommunications Training Institute (USTTI) where he received training on IP Multimedia Systems (IMS), Internet Security and Telecom Management in emerging economies. Oyaje holds a Bachelor's degree in Communications Engineering from the Federal University of Technology, Owerri and has attended several local and international seminars, workshops and training courses on telecom management, project management and IP network design and trained in companies such as L3 Communications, Verizon, Lucent Technologies and Microsoft. He is a Cisco Certified Professional, a Certified Project Manager and a Member of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (MIEEE) as well as the Project Management Institute (PMI). He was listed in the 2008 edition of the International Who’s Who of Professionals.


Tony Ayabam
Co-founder and Executive Director, Operations

He has over eleven years extensive experience as a professional in the IT and Telecom industry. He has held top-level positions in Ericsson and was part of the team responsible for various new generation mobile technology implementations for several operators. As an Ericsson staff, Mr. Ayabam was ranked as one of the top 15 Datacom Engineers in Ericsson Global in 2004 and has received several training courses on various IP, Mobile and New Generation mobile technologies. He has handled several Telecom projects in different countries. Prior to joining Ericsson, he worked in Schlumberger, as a Network Engineer and was involved in Radio and VSAT network design and implementation for several projects. He holds a Bachelor of Engineering degree in Electrical and Computer Engineering from the Federal University of Technology, Minna as well as having Cisco (CCIE written) and Motorola network professional certifications. Tony has trained in the United Kingdom Telecommunications Academy. He was served as a World Bank Consultant on Telecommunications.


Oga Adejo-Ogiri
Co-founder and Executive Director, Finance and Strategy

Prior to joining Layer3, Oga worked as a Business Consultant and Managing Partner at Vintage Capital, an investment and business consulting firm in Nigeria. He also spent over 8 years working in the Oil & Gas sector with Shell Nigeria. In his last role in Shell, he worked as a Petroleum Economist/Commercial Analyst where he was responsible for carrying out frontline economics analyses on a portfolio of projects valued over $5 billion to support Shell's oil and gas development projects in Nigeria and also advising top management on sound commercial strategies. Prior to this, he worked as a Petroleum Reservoir Engineer where he was responsible for the management and optimization of field and reservoir production performance. Oga also had 1 year work experience in Manny Bank (now Fidelity Bank) where he was responsible for credit analysis of the bank's energy sector clients. Oga Adejo-Ogiri holds a Masters degree in Oil and Gas Management from the Centre for Energy, Mineral Law & Policy (CEPMLP), University of Dundee, Scotland, UK and a Bachelors degree in Chemical Engineering from the Federal University of Technology Owerri, Nigeria. He is an expert on Finance and has attended several courses in this area, both in Nigeria and in the UK.


Wale Shote
Chief Marketing Officer

Wale has over twelve years extensive experience both as a professional IT/Communications Engineer and a Technical Sales Engineer. Before joining Layer3, he worked as a technical/management consultant for the Data Network Management /Infrastructure team of AT&T, UK overseeing the Middle East and Africa region. Prior to this, he worked as the Team Lead/Support Manager for NTL (Virgin Media) in the UK. Wale also worked as a Senior Account Manager with Schlumberger Omnes where he worked directly with senior management in defining the go-to-market strategy and was very instrumental in driving and achieving the company’s sales targets. He also worked with Xerox H.S. Nigeria as an Engineering Systems Specialist. He holds a Bachelor of Science Degree in Electrical Engineering from the University of Lagos as well as several professional certifications in Cisco and Microsoft. He has attended several training programs at Cisco, AT&T, Alcatel University, Telindus High Tech Institute and the Nigerian Institute of Management.



Godwin Michaels
Head, Engineering

Godwin Michaels leads the Network Group. He brings to Layer3 over four years of experience in the IT industry. Prior to joining Layer3, he worked in Schlumberger Network and Infrastructure Solutions as an RF Engineer and Support Engineer.

He is an expert in new generation network technologies including LAN/WAN infrastructure & transmission systems such as Ethernet, SDH, VCAT technology and WIMAX. He manages the entire national network infrastructure of the company.
Godwin earned his bachelor degree in Computer Engineering from the Enugu State University. He also holds numerous technical certifications in Juniper Networks, Cisco and VMware.


Nkoyo Veronica Efretei
Head, Admin and Human Recourses

Nkoyo brings to Layer3 over eight years of human resource, customer relations and administration experience. She has worked for several human resource and customer relations firms both in and out of Nigeria. She started her career as a customer relations consultant for smaller firms before becoming the regional manager - north for First Atlantic Online where she was in charge of customer services and marketing initiatives. Nkoyo worked for over three years as a Customer Relations team leader at Vauxhall, Leagrave, one of the largest producers of automobiles within Europe. She has also worked in various capacities in NTL, Ford Finance and Easy Jet, as well as a Human Resource Manager & Lead Recruitment Consultant in Globemed International, Leeds.  Her core competencies are in the fields of customer relations management, change management, Strategic HRM, manpower planning & people management, performance management, and grievance procedures.

She is a University of Abuja graduate of English and Literary Studies and holds a Masters degree in Human Resource Management from the University of Luton in the United Kingdom,