After 20 years, a Port Harcourt-based IT firm, CINFORES, says its innovative products now sit on over three million desks across Nigeria.
It began with a minister witnessing their magical presentation at a tech exhibition organised by a multinational oil corporation in the Garden City. The minister could not contain himself. He asked for another presentation, after which he began to recommend CINFORES everywhere.
Now, 20 years after, the group played host to the cream of the society and gave account of their journey and its impact.
In a presentation, CINFORES said: “We began with over 80,000 questions and answers in a compact disc (CD) and it led to the product, Brain Friend which had over 3000 videos for schools.
“This reached one million users across Nigeria with many organisations such as the Federal Ministry of Education, Universal Basic Education Commission, MTN, 9mobile, and states of the federation. In 2008, we pioneered e-examination system that tested over 130,000 candidates for organisations such as TotalEnergies, SPDC, RSSDA, NITDA, Rotary, etc. Over 3m JAMB brochures.”
They ventured into education management solutions and systems and it served five universities in Nigeria. “We thus set up the e-Campus which recorded 346,704 applicants, admitted 203,900 students and so far graduated over 86,274 students. We have handled statewide education management systems and streamlined their systems. It has handled over files and 4000 has been evaluated.”
The report said it has handled 541,280 enrolments in statewide examinations in Rivers State. “We have printed 204,450 certificates for the Rivers State Basic Education Certificate Examinations (BECE). This has led to over 600% revenue increase.”
CINFORES thus ventured into e-Governance in Rivers State through a product, Pusmis which profiled over 55,165 staff and 23,823 pensioners in the state in last five years.
Local councils are said to begin to join and embrace e-governance with huge results in e-recruitment handling 195,545 candidates.
The tech firm is venturing into politics, too, by offering election handling electronically. Many wonder whether they are telling Nigeria something.
The presentation said: “CINFORES tried its hands in politics to handle e-elections through e-voting in places such as Rivers State University, Ijaw National Congress, etc handling 95,809 votings.
“CINFORES has over 40,000 users in six states of Nigeria so far. In the Rivers State Judiciary, it has enabled 108,367 e-filings and 215,614 motions and 461,810 affidavits with huge revenues.
“In health, a product was developed since 2020 in the Rivers State University Teaching Hospital where 332,000 cases have been handled in 1.8m transactions resulting in 100 per cent boost in revenue.”
They also stepped into the transport sector where it has handled 5,556 vehicle registrations with 8,889 operator registrations with 9,612 applications.
It had been in e-Revenue at Rivers Internal Revenue Service (RIRS) since 2018 which has led to 87% increase in IGR. It has processed 17,000 annual returns.
In 2017, the Rivers State Government partnered with CINFORES for code tech (codegenators). This has led to the CINFORES Tech Academy in 2024.
The general remark is: “Our work began with a revolution in education and it is spreading in other sectors of national life especially in e-governance.”
CEO speaks:
The managing director, Ibifuro Asawo, thrilled the audience with the striking story of a humble beginning that has exploded into national impact. “We started as four friends, then seven. It was with grit, innovation, and bond.
“We began by selling CDs now to selling programmes, apps. Our story proves that all things are possible if you believe. Our story shows that there is a place for social capital when there is no financial capital.”
