Exploitation of catalysts with robust activity and popular price is crucial for sustainable water oxidation. Herein, the rod bundle-like nickel cobaltate (NiCo2O4) was derived from the NiCo-BTC bimetal-organic coordination complex. The NiCo-BTC derived rod bundle-like NiCo2O4 owns abundant mesoporous with the size of 2.2 nm, resulting in a considerable surface area of 18.9 m(2)/g. The derived rod bundle-like NiCo2O4 exhibited remarkable electrocatalytic activity for oxygen evolution reaction (OER) in 1.0 mol/L KOH solution, which delivered a low onset potential (1.49 V), and small Tafel slope (64.1 mV/dec) with outstanding stability. Therefore, the rod bundle-like NiCo2O4 with unique mesoporous channels is a potential electrocatalyst for OER.