Men Should You Know: Bankole Cardoso

The man, Bankole Cardoso, is the son of Mr Afolabi Cardoso and late Dr Ameyo Adadevoh, the heroine who fought against the invasion of the Ebola virus in Nigeria. Bankole Cardoso, co-founder of Easy Taxi, was formerly resident at New York before he returned to Nigeria in 2013, after quitting his job with Carlyle Group just around the time his mother fell ill with the Ebola Virus. Although he had his primary and secondary education at Corona School and Grange Secondary School respectively here in Nigeria, he moved to the United Kingdom for his A Levels at Rugby School and then to the United States to study Accounting and Business Management at Boston College. After his graduation in 2010, he moved to New York and joined PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC), as an Associate. He later earned a Certified Public Accountant (CPA) certificate and received an offer of employment from The Carlyle Group, which he accepted. While there, he joined the Global Market Strategies Group, working with the CFO to analyse the company’s investment and also support a particular fundraising project that his group embarked upon.

Eighteen months after joining The Carlyle Group, Bankole Cardoso decided to quit his job to pursue his passion – running a business in his home country, Nigeria. Upon his arrival, he co-founded Easy Taxi, a mobile phone application that lets riders request taxi rides just in one click. He was the Managing Director of this company from 2013 to 2015 before he resigned. Today,Easy Taxi is a company that operates in major cities in Nigeria with over 400 drivers in Lagos alone and over 55,000 users. Leaving Easy Taxi, he joined Jumia Group as their Head of Global Communications and was in that position till 2016. During his stay at Jumia Group, he launched the first edition of the MTN Entrepreneurship Challenge powered by Jumia in 13 African countries.The challenge drew 1,529 applicants with startups in the Healthtech, Fintech, Edutech and Smart Cities categories. Bankole became the Director of SimplyAds Media in 2016 and has been in that position till now. The company is a Nigerian digital advertising agency that uses taxis for innovative advertising, thereby bringing brand adverts even closer to consumers. He is also the Head of the Executive team of Dr Ameyo Stella Adadevoh (DRASA) Health Trust. The organization was set up for the purpose of providing support for the improvement of the Nigerian health sector, especially in the field of infectious diseases and to also keep up the legacy of his late mother – “selfless care for patients”. The three main focus of the organization, therefore, are healthcare system, infectious diseases, and education. Their mission is “to keep people healthy and safe from public health threats by improving hygiene and sanitation, advancing infection prevention and control, and promoting outbreak preparedness”. Bankole Cardoso is an MBA degree holder from Columbia Business School (Columbia University) and has served as an MBA Investment Associate at Quona Capital in 2017. He was featured on CNN’s Africa Start-Up (a show) where he shared his journey with “Easy Taxi” in 2014. He was also named by Forbes as one of the “30 Most Promising Young Entrepreneurs in Africa” in 2014. References: BellaNaija, DrAsaTrust, NPR, StarGist, LinkedIn.   Feature Image: stocksng.com

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This article was first published on 24th August 2018

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