Osita Aniemeka

My story so far 

I’m the Founder/President of the Sub Saharan Open University, an African disruptive learning community and Chief Executive Officer, International Center for Development Affairs (ICDA). ICDA is the Implementing Agency (IA) for the Central Bank of Nigeria’s Vocational and Entrepreneurship Development Centre (CBN | VEDC). In 2010, I became Fulltime Faculty in Management and Social Sciences, Ibrahim Badamasi Babangida University, Lapai, Niger State and the Director of the Center for Learning Communities of the same University, where my work involved taking the academic community beyond the classroom/campus and broadening university learning experience to a global environment.

With backgrounds in Communication, Entrepreneurial Leadership, and Community Development, I worked for the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) Project, NEXTT – Expanded Trade and Transport, managing the Lagos-Kano-Jibiya (LAKAJI) Corridor and I was consultant to UKAID/DFID | ENABLE, UNDP | FMARD Capacity Development Trajectory. I led the Nigeria Development Gateway Collaborative (World Bank-Development Gateway Foundation) and rose from Senior Research Fellow at the Foundation for African Arts and Letters (FAAL), New York, to become Member of the Governing Council before returning to Nigeria to join the Faculty and Senate of IBB University. As member of the Global Steering Committee of the NGO Working Group on the World Bank representing Africa Region, I was named Man of the Year in 2002 for my years of development work on the African continent.

I’m a skilled facilitator and capacity development specialist with expertise in organizational communication, media relations, SME leadership, innovation, and change management, I gained extensive experience in communicating for development and change, performance management, media, non-profit governance, donor relations, and public-private-dialogue/partnership working in the United States and in Nigeria. I worked for the renowned American Express in Huntsville, Alabama and I was Research Assistant to Professor Zachary Senwo at the HBCU, Alabama Agricultural & Mechanical University (AA&MU) and my social enterprise, International Center for Development Affairs, marked the 26th of establishment in June 2021.