He missed his first choice course and got turned down by IT firms. Today, he’s built a multi-company tech group

In this edition of After Hours, we follow Olusegun Enitan Dada, founder of ITH Holdings and how technology became his language for solving structural problems.

Olusegun Enitan Dada’s journey into technology has been driven by one question: how do systems really work? He started off watching satellite antennas and arcade consoles as a curious child; now, he’s built ITH Holdings, a multi-entity technology institution.

After narrowly missing out on studying his first-choice course, Computer Engineering, at the University of Lagos, Olusegun Dada (OED) graduated with a degree in Technology Education and has since built a parallel professional path for himself. 

In this edition of After Hours, he unpacks the discipline, structure, and long-term thinking behind his approach to technology. 

Early encounters with technology

Growing up, access to technology wasn’t as simple as turning on a smart TV. In the days before satellite television became commonplace, you had to go out of your way to watch a football match or catch international news. 

I was fascinated by how it all worked. How does a satellite dish pull signals from the sky? How are cables connected to homes? Why did some people have access while others didn’t? How exactly did the system function?

That curiosity extended to video games. When the early PlayStations and arcade-style game centres became popular, I spent time around them, playing Street Fighter and football games, but more importantly, wondering how they were built. How did these systems process commands so instantly? How did the graphics respond to human touch?

Looking back, those weren’t just childhood interests. They were the beginning of systems thinking.

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Very early on, I realised that tools matter. And to truly leverage tools, you have to understand them. For me, technology became less about gadgets and more about understanding structure, why systems fail, how processes break, and how to design them to last.

When I sat for JAMB, I was determined to study Computer...