By Ghazali Ibrahim
Abiola Olaniran, the visionary founder of Gamsole and one of the pioneers of Africa’s mobile gaming industry, has passed away at the age of 36.
Sources close to the family confirmed that the soft-spoken tech entrepreneur died on Wednesday, July 16, and was laid to rest the same day in a private ceremony.
Widely regarded as a trailblazer in Africa’s nascent gaming scene, Olaniran transformed a campus coding interest into an internationally recognized brand.
His journey began in 2010 when he led his Obafemi Awolowo University team to national victory in the Microsoft Imagine Cup.
Two years later, he founded Gamsole in Lagos, choosing the then-niche Windows Phone platform as his initial launchpad.
At a time when African game development was virtually unheard of, Olaniran’s colourful, casual games struck a chord globally.
By early 2015, Gamsole had recorded over 10 million downloads across Windows, Android, and feature-phone platforms.
His breakthrough moment came with the release of Gidi Run, Gamsole’s flagship endless runner game, which was launched in partnership with MTN.
The collaboration pioneered a new model of monetization in African gaming.
Olaniran’s impact was quickly recognized. In 2015, Forbes Africa named him to its prestigious “30 Under 30” list alongside tech entrepreneurs like Iyin Aboyeji and Mark Essien.
The following year, he was featured among Forbes’ “30 Most Promising Young African Entrepreneurs,” validating his role as a standard-bearer for the continent’s gaming potential.
But Olaniran’s legacy extends far beyond downloads and accolades. Friends and colleagues remember him for his humility, generosity, and belief in others.
“He never wanted a spotlight, just progress,” said Adewale Yusuf, founder of Techpoint Africa.
Yusuf credited Olaniran with being the first to financially support the media startup in its early days, providing not only seed funding but office space.
In 2020, Olaniran shifted his focus to education, joining Kenyan ed-tech platform eLimu as Chief Technology Officer following its acquisition by Nigeria’s Co-Creation Hub (CcHub).
Over the next 19 months, he led a revamp of eLimu’s mobile offerings, integrating game design principles into literacy and revision tools used by over 500,000 learners across East Africa.
In recent years, he stepped back from Gamsole to mentor young African entrepreneurs and invest as an angel in startups across the continent.
As the tech community mourns his passing, Olaniran is being remembered as a quiet giant whose vision and values helped shape Africa’s digital future.
