System specs bags best software entrepreneur 2015 award

Founder of System specs, owner of Remita, the electronic platform, John Obaro, has emerged as the winner the Best Software Entrepreneur 2015 at the National Information Technology Merit Awards [NITMA].

NITMA is an annual event organised by Nigeria Computer Society (NCS) to acknowledge, celebrate and reward corporate organisations and individuals who are outstanding in their various information technology (IT) practices.

President of NCS, Adesola Aderounmu at a press conference in Lagos to announce NITMA 2015 said that the annual event is intended to reward excellent contributions in Nigeria’s information technology industry.

“It is a night of awards to celebrate the best of Nigerian information technology creativity and innovation that has fundamentally changed, and is still changing the Nigerian nation. Award winners are recognised for being inspiring symbols of the IT community. The Nigerian nation has moved forward because of their contributions. It is honour well deserved. Nigeria, not just the IT community, owes them a huge debt of gratitude”.

Having enjoyed a successful career with International Merchant Bank (IMB), Obaro founded System Specs 23 years ago as a West African Partner to Systems Union, UK offering the Sun Systems suite of solutions.

System specs are a leader in the e-payment market in Nigeria with its Remita solution, which offers e-payment solutions on a single interbank platform. Remita currently processes about $6 billion worth of transactions on a monthly basis.

Recall that Remita moves the federal government Treasury Single Account [TSA] and the platform is an entirely locally developed electronic platform. The CBN, after a multi-level and rigorous evaluation exercise in 2011, selected this software. Remita was selected on merit over and above other foreign and local options.

While receiving the award on behalf of Obaro, the Executive Director of the company, Deremi Atanda, said that, “Obaro is passionate about the promotion of Nigeria’s indigenous software industry. He believes that the home-grown software is capable and can rival any other software anywhere in the world”.

Atanda added that Obaro is known in many circles as ‘the consummate innovator’. “He is a trail-blazer on many fronts. His footprint is evident across multiple sectors of the Nigerian economy”.

JUMOKE AKIYODE