John Obaro, Group Managing Director of SystemSpecs, Africa’s foremost software and fintech giant, has provided insights into some of the company’s biggest milestones even as the pioneer software provider celebrates her 30th anniversary.
Speaking over the weekend at the Business Network Experience session organised by the Redeemed Christian Church of God, City of David Parish, Obaro told the story of the firm’s three decades of innovation and impact.
Founded in 1992, SystemSpecs is the creator of some of the most iconic technology solutions in Nigeria and beyond. These include payment platform, Remita; human resource management solution, HumanManager; and ecommerce platform, Paylink.
According to Obaro, SystemSpecs was founded in 1992 when he left his job as a banker to start a wholly indigenous software company at a time when most Nigerians didn’t know what software was all about.
“After about 10 years in the banking sector, I resigned from one of the highest paying organisations in Nigeria,” said Obaro, “I counted on God’s favour (with limited funds), and founded SystemSpecs, a wholly indigenous software house.”
SystemSpecs launched Human Manager arguably a global pioneer of employee self-service in the HR/payroll management in 1993. This product instantly became a trailblazer and was selected by the World Bank for the implementation of the Federal Government of Nigeria’s pilot of the Integrated Payroll and Personnel Information System (IPPIS), leading to a commendation of SystemSpecs by former president Olusegun Obasanjo in his book, My Presidential Legacy.
The tech expert also spoke about Remita, a fintech solution developed in 2005 as a one-stop solution to empower individuals and organisations to pay salaries across all banks, deliver tax schedules across all states, contribution deduction schedules to cooperatives, and also pension contributions to Pension Fund Custodians (PFCs) of all the Pension Fund Administrators (PFAs).
Today, Remita is even popular for its adoption for the payment of everyday bills like electricity, data, airtime top-ups as well as cable TV recharge.
Remita is also well known for its role as the technology solution powering the Treasury Single Account (TSA), a unified bank account policy recommended by the International Monetary Fund (IMF) to improve fiscal management. According to the Minister of Finance, Budget and National Planning, Mrs. Zainab Ahmed, the TSA saves the Nigerian government about N45 billion monthly.
On February 22nd, 2022, the firm expanded its operations as it celebrated its 30th anniversary. SystemSpecs announced that it had transformed into a holding company, with two distinct subsidiaries: Remita Payment Services Limited (RPSL) and SystemSpecs Technology Services Limited (STSL).
It also announced the emergence of a new chairman. Dr. Ernest Ndukwe, former Executive Vice Chairman of the Nigerian Telecommunications Commission (NCC) and Chairman of MTN Nigeria, took over from Dr. Christopher Kolade, Nigeria’s former ambassador to the United Kingdom.
According to Obaro, some of the values that have driven the company and contributed immensely to its success over the past thirty years are its dependence on God for success, ethics and integrity, friendship with customers, family-based relationship at work, partnership with neighbours, as innovation and diligence in the pursuit of excellence.