Celebrating Successful Indigenous Software Developers|CILICON VALLEY | PSALM:SON OLAEGBE

The global software industry has continued to evolve. Countries have developed national software for security, payment and entertainment. Most software-exporting countries have evolved unique industry, shaped by resources and global opportunities. For example, Japan exports software games, India exports software services, Ireland exports software products (created by MNCs located in-country and by a growing number of indigenous companies), and Israel exports software technology which is subsequently productized by firms in the US and Europe.


Nigeria should be in this league of ICT software developers in the world, since the likes of South Africa and Kenya have developed homegrown software applications such as the Open Source platform (Ubuntu) and Ushahidi platform. However, Nigeria has not taken this giant step due to several challenges. One of these challenges is not lack of work force. It is not the will. So, what are these encumbrances?

According to reports, Minister of Communication Technology, Omobola Johnson said from viewpoint of buyers, local software does not meet any standards. The solutions lack scalability and future prospect. The solutions are not easily modifiable to meet future needs. “The software lack proper documentation to enable other developers to enhance and modify them.” However, in the midst of these woes the following successful indigenous software stories are worth celebrating:

Remita

From SystemSpecs, Remita has emerged as a premium one-stop, multi bank, modular e-payment, and e-collections, e-payroll and e-schedules platform. Huge transactions in the realm of N500 billion are processed monthly on the platform, CEO of the company John Obaro informed at a media parley in Lagos while unveiling the premium platform.

According to him, Remita presents individuals and organizations with a simply and intuitive user interface. Individuals, public and private sector organizations have processed over N12 trillion worth of transactions on Remita. Its intuitiveness has attracted the Central Bank of Nigeria [CBN] to infuse Remita with the federal government integrated financial management system, and all ministries, departments and agencies [MDAs] in Nigeria has adopted it for effective financial management.


Aside, 22 banks and over 400 Microfinance banks [Mfbs] in Nigeria use Remita for revenue collections. Remita also handles payments of federal government expenditure and collection of its Internally Generated Revenues [IGR] under the Treasury Single Account [TSA] initiative led by office of the Accountant General of the Federation [OAGF]. Remita has significantly revolutionized the e-payment industry in Nigeria.


Obaro pointed out that the platform enables more transactions even as the CBN’s cashless policy commenced nationwide. This is a success story from Nigeria and a pride of Africa through which individuals manage their personal finances.  Remita has enabled public and private sector organizations of any size, structure and complexity to manage their financial transactions for seamless operations. The CBN’s acceptance of the platform is another testimony to its ingenuity.

iTeller

Before now cheque, deposit and cheque clearing would take about three days before you can get value. This challenge slows business and economy activities as well as separates Nigeria’s economy from the rest of the world. To correct the anomaly and ensure Nigeria’s economic policy synchronizes with what obtains in Europe, the CBN in concert with Nigeria Interbank Settlement Systems (NIBSS) and Nigeria’s leading financial services software provider, Precise Financial Systems, PFS, activated the cheque truncation regime.

With this, the settlement cycle of a cheque in Nigeria was cut to one day.  The cheque truncation system allows all branches of the CBN to capture all cheques in the respective branches and maintain them in a central server in Lagos. The system then allows all captured cheques from the bank to be transmitted to the clearinghouse from Lagos.

CEO of PFS, Yele Okeremi, informed that the system is responsible for the processing of all inward cheques and NEFT transactions of banks. While it would address all required management reporting, its controls are guided “as the system implements all required maker checker rules of the banks”.


ITeller, software developed by PFS, an indigenous company has made this possible. With the activation of cheque truncation through iTeller, important challenge the system has addressed is the ability of the CBN to meet the deadline for cheque truncation nationwide.  Aside, the platform has also assisted the CBN to reduce cost, time and the stress level involved in its cheque clearing operations. “This system removes all logistics costs associated with clearing”.

Bank One

This platform manages over N7 billion in combine financial institution assets and N3 billion in combined customer deposits while it processes several thousands of transactions daily. As a result, Mfbs in Nigeria has found haven in BankOne software as over 100 Mfbs have deployed BankOne as core information technology banking system to run their operations. This software is an innovative platform licensed by an indigenous technology firm, AppZone.  The software allows financial institutions to use mobile devices as data capture terminals in a big step to ‘branchless banking’.


Through this platform, Mfbs have signed up several bottom-of-the-pyramid individuals and brought them into financial inclusion.BankOne core banking application provides access to over 200 retail banking automation features catering to a wide spectrum of operating models, which may be adopted by client financial institutions. The flexibility and parameterization built in allows the platform to be seamlessly tailored to financial institution needs during implementation.

AppZone, Nigeria's leading provider of homegrown banking and payment software with clientele that spans 80% of commercial banks in Nigeria, over 100 Mfbs and mortgage banks, started off primarily as a developer of custom e-Banking and payment software for leading commercial banks in Nigeria.

CEO of AppZone, Obi Emetarom, in a report said that the company accumulated a remarkable asset base of e-payment software products and intellectual property. To extend its existing payment solutions to smaller scale financial institutions, the company observed the absolute dearth of basic IT infrastructure and commenced a two- year project to develop a world class yet affordable core banking platform for Mfbs and other small scale retail financial institutions.

However, according to former president of Institute of Software Professionals of Nigeria [ISPON] and CEO of Connect Technologies, Chris Uwaje, “Nigeria’s core competence is in the software knowledge industry, not in heavy technology industry”.  This is obvious, and with this, indigenous software developers would continue to evolve.

CREDIT: http://www.financialtechnologyafrica.com/