General News

Mobile Payment is Ubiquitous – Madubuike

Published

15 years ago

July 26, 2010

Alhaji Abdulfatah Ahmed, Kwara State Governor

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Emeka Madubuike, is the managing director of Systemtech Group, a comprehensive Information and Communications Technology (ICT) Company licensed by the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC). Madubuike with over 25 years of computing experience studied Computer Science at the University of Nigeria Nsukka before moving on to Temples University in Philadelphia for advanced studies. A rounded ICT professional, Madubuike is a member of various professional associations. He spoke on the company’s mobile payment services and other industry issues in this interview with funmi ilesanmi.

Patronage of indigenous Software
Our people feel that applications designed and developed in Nigeria are inferior and so often they prefer when you say it is from India, USA or the UK. That is the challenge we are facing. However, that has not deterred us from saying this is our software. We compete very well both on the local and international platforms. Telcos we do applications for know that it is the same application that is developed in the US that we also do. Applications like interactive voice response (IVR), CVR connection systems, SMS platforms, billing systems that we design and develop here can compete with anyone anywhere else in the world. However, often we do not sell as much as the ones produced abroad because there is a general apathy for applications designed and produced in Nigeria. We are not operating in a different environment, it is exactly the same thing. We are faced by with the same challenges. Again, because we emphasize on service, we tend to use that edge to serve. The competition is there, people who deal on applications that are designed abroad try to use that as an edge but we do not mind. We are stuck with what we have, we insist on good quality, we ask customers to give it a try and when they do that, they have reasons to come back to us. Our competitive edge is quality of service both thereafter, that is what has sustained us.
Grey Market
We try to drum it to the ears of our customers that what is key is buying from a channel. We are channel people, we are a gold partner and not just a gold partner, we are thirdly the best IT solution partner in terms of IT partnership in Nigeria on PSG. We have won several awards, so people know that when they buy from us, they are buying original products. Even our shop in Ikeja is a HP shop, which is why we want people to patronize the shop.
Systemtech Mobile Money
This unit company is involved in providing mobile application and ubiquitous computing solution. The flagship of this unit company is mobile money, a mobile payment money transfer solution for banks and financial institutions. Where we are now is the licensing stage. Once companies have the license, we will play with them to set up mobile payment platforms. It requires the ability of at least four companies in four different aspects- the application platform which is what we have; the switching platform, which is what will be used to move money from one bank to the other. It also includes the network operating environment, which include all network operators and then the banking license. It is a combination of several aspects. We have positioned ourselves in such a way that we can play with anyone who has a banking license. Our systems have been tested with switches that are available in Nigeria and outside Nigeria. We as technology providers can run on both CDMA and GSM platforms. The banks are connected to switches so we are going to collaborate with them but there are people abroad who also want us to use their switching platforms. There is the national switch system we have now and two other companies involved in the switch. The truth is that the CBN and Nigerian regulations might want to localize this since money is involved.
Benefits of Mobile Payments
It is enormous, you know ICT is what is used in technical jobs. With reference to mobile payment, it is going to make things a lot easier. You do not need to go anywhere to do your business, you do not need to be computer savvy to do your business, you do not have to go to your bank to credit your ATM or credit cards. What it means is that when you have an account in a bank, you can send emails or use your phone to move money to another bank even at the comfort of your home. The time it will take you to travel from one location to the other is saved so you can make good use of your time. Everybody uses phones, sends SMS and besides you know it is not just SMS but the numeric aspect where you press1,2,3 followed by the options. At the end of the day, this is going to make life a lot easier and charges for service will drop drastically. We are not going to move money around anymore because it costs money to print cheque leaves and all that. You can simply send an SMS or use the USSD function on your phone. For me, it will in no small measure reduce the time we waste in checking up mails, the time and resources we waste in the bank and even infrastructure. Also, there will be limited error because once we set up the technology, it does what it is supposed to do. There will also be limited human interference. People living in remote locations will be able to transact business because mobile payment has manifold visibility status than the banking system right now. Apart from that, people are able to publicize their products on the platforms as it is done in banking. Mobile payment systems will improve the socio-economy of Nigeria and this is a case in point and we expect that it will even be better than this because other countries started it much earlier, so this is going to improve a whole lot in the economy. It will give money to people who do not have money, it will provide a platform for you to transfer money to people who do not have means of getting money before.

Elimination of Human Intervention and Unemployment
What it does is to remove you from unnecessary jobs that you do overtime, you now have time to come up with some other things you can do. The truth is that the human mind is never idle. This system will make it possible for banks to mobilize savings from wherever they are and from wherever you are. For the network operator- the switching system, people make use of their infrastructure, they are paid some commission for doing that, so they also make money and that generates employment. That may limit the number of people you employ or even get them to do some other research to improve their ability. Once your resources improve as a result of increase in the volume of your business, you are bound to expand and get more people to work for you. It is also a golden opportunity for the under-banked to be banked.
Perception of Acceptability of Mobile Payment
I can say 100 percent. Of course it is normal for people to show apathy to new technology or new inventions. We are talking about the use of phones, Nigerians are people who use their phones effectively and this particular platform is going to ride on the phone. It is interesting to know that we use phones more than so many other ethnic groups in life so people are already conversant with the platform that this particular application will be riding on. If you are going to use plane or computer or some other funny technology that people are not very familiar with, yes it may be difficult but if it is on the phones they use everyday, it is easier. People are advanced with its use but that is not to say there will be no challenge. There would be some challenges, you will need to use some codes on the USSD platform which needs to be learnt. That is one of the challenges but in terms of accessibility of the service, it is 100 percent but of course, I know Nigerians would encounter some challenges when we start using it, maybe in the first two weeks or months.
Phone Compatibility
All phones, even the lowest phone uses USSD, there is no phone in Nigeria that does not use *this this this* that. The only thing is that the graphic interface might not be available on that phone. This application may come on different platforms depending on the capacity or capability of your phone. A USSD function is needed and that is why when people recharge their phones, it does not go to somebody else because using that sign drives it to one platform and that platform cannot be broken into easily. No matter what phone you use, it is possible for you to do mobile payment.
Systemtech
Systemtech is an information and technology company offering consultancy services, specialist training programs, sales and maintenance of various computer hardware and peripherals. We carry out software development for various applications, website design and hosting and syndicated client operational support services on all platforms. The Group Company does have other subsidiaries, specifically four companies- Systemtech Services Limited, Systemtech Engineering Services Limited, Systemtech Software Limited. We also have the fourth one which is Systemtech Mobile Limited. Basically, our job is to provide complete information and communication technology. Systemtech Group has strategic alliances and technical partnership with the best of breed in the IT industry all around the globe which includes Adobe APC, APC, Cisco Networks, Dell Corporation, EPSON, Hewlett Packard (HP), Oracle, IBM, Intel, Microsoft and Symantec/VERITAS.
Value Proposition
It is actually service. We emphasize a whole lot on our capacity to deliver service in time. In terms of software, we take our time to design our systems ourselves. In terms of support, we respond to customers within a maximum period of three hours from calls.

Corporate Social Responsibility
We are doing a lot. Apart from the training we offer interns who come here for a year or less internship, we are working with Google to increase IT awareness in Nigeria. We are also working with all higher institutions, we run a whole lot of IT support applications, we give computers and people pay over time. Now we are involved in direct implementation in universities; we give computers to them, set it up for them and train them on how to use it.
Plans for Systemtech
My plan for Systemtech is to go to the stock market and for it to become a huge success. What I want is for Nigerians to own this company in the next four to five years, for them to participate and contribute to what is Nigerian because we have the best brains in Nigeria. I want people to design applications and compete anywhere and with anyone in the world. I will be happy wherever I am, knowing that Nigerians are able to better application developers using this platform.

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General News

Leo Stan Ekeh: A “Rare Avis”, an Unconquerable Entrepreneur

Published

18 hours ago

December 22, 2025

Ugo Onwuaso

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By Tim Akano

Leo Stan Ekeh (LSE) is an extraordinary human being. He is extremely hardworking, hugely brave, and massively intelligent. He is a shrewd businessman but with a cathedral-size heart of butterfly

Leo Stan Ekeh

I’m a product of LSE’s generosity. But not only me, I am close enough to know. We are uncountable.

I was always with him after office hours in his office twenty years ago when he was constructing a church in his place of birth. He was so committed to details and beauty that when the church was roofed and he went for inspection and discovered some misalignment, he instructed the contractor to remove the roof and redo it, without minding the extra cost coming from his pocket.

There was this physically challenged fellow that LSE bought a car for, including a driver to make life easier for her.

During one of his birthday celebrations, he told me, Tim, I am not inviting my friends for any birthday party this year, all the money I would have used in buying expensive wine, I am donating everything to charity

LSE & I

He actually looked for me when I started New Horizons. He read my interview in the Vanguard news paper and asked his staff to look for me.

Prayer:
May each of us receive a telephone call before the end of 2025 that will change our life’s trajectory for good for ever in Jesus name, Amen.

I did.!

Our conversation on that fateful Friday went like this:

LSE: Tim, I read your interview in the newspaper. I would like us to meet.

Tim: You are our LEADER in the Technology ecosystem, Sir.
I can come to your house tomorrow Saturday morning for a breakfast.

LSE: Tim, that’s good, I will be expecting you by 8am tomorrow in my house.

By 8am the following day, I was in his massive, intimidating house.
As I entered the premises I said a simple prayer: The God Almighty who is blessing LSE, please Daddy God be kind to me also in my entrepreneurship journey Amen.

That day the breakfast meeting went well. He wanted to see the man behind the ambitious vision of transforming the ICT education in Nigeria.

He saw tomorrow!

1 LSE First Intervention: Two years after I started my company, New Horizons, I ran out of cash, even to pay salary was a prayer item every 30th of the month. That was May, 2007 it remained just 72 hours for Heaven to fall on my head, metaphorically speaking, that is!

I needed N10M to stop HEAVEN FROM CRASHING ON MY HEAD!
Banks in Nigeria are irrelevant to Start-ups, except and until you START WALKING, Banks will not come to your assistance in Nigeria.
It is O.Y.O (On Your Own) for every Start-up. If you don’t have God 100% on your side, don’t dabble into entrepreneurship in Nigeria!

This is why over 80% of Start-ups failed in Nigeria. In America, it is about 50%.

LSE was in Abuja on this particular Thursday. I called him and requested to see him. He told me to come.

Our conversation went like this:

LSE: Tim, I know you are keeping well.

Tim: My chairman, I am strong in faith, but in reality, heaven is hot on my side o! I need help, Chairman.

LSE: What is the matter, Tim?
Tim: I need N10M soft loan to keep afloat. It is urgent, critical and time- bound.

LSE ok, Tim, see me on Monday (that meeting took place on a Thursday).

Tim: My chairman, I am not exaggerating the criticality of my situation. by Monday it would be too late because Heaven would crash on my head in another 72 hours without the N10M! And it would be all over.

LSE adjusted himself, he breathed in , he looked me straight in the eyes. I wouldn’t know what LSE saw in my eyes that day.

But he stood up, went to the inner room and he came out with his cheque book. He gave me an Access Bank cheque for N10M, which I later refunded 3 months later without interest.

I survived, heaven didn’t fall that day, glory be to God and thanks to LSE.

LSE intervention 2:

This time we had grown, having survived the ABIKU YEARS (The first 5 years of Start-up are the ABIKU YEARS, years of premature, sudden death. If you survive the first 5 years, your chances of living to celebrate your 20 years in business are bright). We did, all gratitude to God.

I got a business that required huge capital to execute- very big money, which was beyond my capacity.

I went to my destiny- helper again. He is never tired of seeing me. He picks my calls on the first ring. But I don’t abuse the access too. No frivolous conversations. No irrelevant calls. Every call is about matter and mission critical

This particular day LSE was looking extremely tired, having over flogged his body.

He told me he had been sleeping in the office for about 3 days, busy putting his papers together to enable him close a massive business deal, which he eventually got, after fighting like a lion whose cub was taken by a lone leopard!

LSE overwhelmed every opposition. He fought like Mohammed Alli, the world’s greatest boxer of all time. LSE won.
And that changed everything for him, too, forever. Fortune favours the Brave

Our conversation that day went like this:

LSE: Tim, congrats you are doing well, I can see. Indeed I instructed all my staff to make sure they read any article you published (“I felt flattered”).

Tim: Chairman, I need your help, KONGA is not ready to give me the products I needed on credit and I don’t have cash to pay and the client will not pay me until after 9 months.

Tough one, indeed.

LSE: Tim, I will be honest with you, there is no way KONGA would give you products worth N500M (10 years ago money!) on credit.

Indeed, we held a meeting on Monday over your matter, the resolution of the Zinox Group is that you must look for cash before you can get the products. Let me tell you, my staff made me to sign-off on our resolution that as the Chairman of Zinox , I, LSE will not go behind to do the opposite of what we all agreed to, and I signed. Tim, I am sorry, my hands are tied!

As of that time, some of the young people LSE helped disappointed him badly. So bad, some souls are ungrateful.

Tim: Chairman, I know some of the people you helped even went to the extent of wrongfully blackmailing you in the media. I know that for a fact.

But Chairman, I am different. I am Tim Akano, I won’t disappoint you.
I will remain eternally grateful if you can still think out- of -the box and help me out.

I added: Chairman, you recall you were the one who looked for me that you would give me a helping hand in life.
I think my last statement touched him.
LSE Tim, I will give you my personal cheque. Here is the cheque for you, take it to KONGA and pay for your goods to meet your deadline.

Tim On getting to KONGA, from my steps and tone, the staff knew something positive had happened.
I confidently presented my cheque to Loretta & Co, the lady managing our account in KONGA then
They were shell shocked that God pulled it through for me another time, using Leo Stan Ekeh.

There were many more positive interventions, which I will reserve for my memoir.

Lessons: The reason behind the rise and rise of Leo Stan Ekeh (LSE) has to do partly because of his massive generosity, most of them are done silently.
Yes, LSE is a shrewd businessman, but he has a heart of a butterfly.

2 LSE is unconquerable and himself and his lineage will remain so because of several lives he has impacted positively

3 We are all products of people’s generosity. No one is a self-made man. In my own corner, through the TIM AKANO FOUNDATION, I am giving back in thousands folds all the kindness I am enjoying from people like LSE & others. I’m not withholding any kindness from people who need it when it’s within my capacity. God saw my heart, too, that when he must have helped me to stand, I will light thousands of candles.

It was William Shakespeare who admonished his followers to tell him all the good things they wanted to tell him while he was still alive because tributes written in beautiful prose means nothing to a dead person.

I congratulate LSE children, they have a great father in and his legendary generosity will always speak for them up to the 4th generation., as the Holy Bible said. LSE children should be proud of their father, he is a Lion, an Eagle and a butterfly, (LEB) all together at the same time.

@LSE: Sir, if you manage to read this short public appreciation, which I was inspired to write in a wedding event (the couple is taking over one hour to come out, instead of joining people who are anxious, I decided to use my idle time to pay you this tribute today), I want you to feel proud of yourself; what you have achieved will take an average person 10 lifetimes to achieve.

Your positive numerous interventions in my entrepreneurship journey have germinated and I am also touching lives- like you- in thousands across Africa, not only in Nigeria, especially with regards to Youth Empowerment.

I am eternally grateful, my chairman, my destiny-helper.

My prayer for you my Chairman, LSE: The Lion, the Eagle, the Butterfly (LEB) is for God to keep you continuously in sound, divine health, peace and happiness- that you will still remain strong at 120 years of age like the Biblical Moses who miraculously escaped physical depreciation in his eyes, strength and mental magnitude.🙏

Gratitude!
Gratitude!!
Gratitude!!!

[email protected]

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General News

NITDA Wins Triple SERVICOM Honours for Citizen-Centred Service Delivery

Published

18 hours ago

December 22, 2025

Ugo Onwuaso

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National Information Technology Development Agency (NITDA) has clinched three prestigious Service Compact with All Nigerians (SERVICOM) awards at the annual Ministry, Departments and Agencies (MDAs) Awards ceremony, earning acclaim for its outstanding citizen-centred service delivery.

NITDA

The honours spotlight NITDA’s leadership in digital transformation and efficient public service, as evaluated by SERVICOM on key benchmarks of timeliness, transparency, and customer satisfaction.

NITDA Director General, Kashifu Inuwa Abdullahi, received a personal commendation plaque during the event, recognising his unwavering support and commitment to prioritising citizens in agency operations.

The agency also secured a Special Recognition Award from the SERVICOM Office, celebrating its sustained initiatives to bridge government and citizens through high-quality service delivery.

In a further mark of excellence, NITDA was named the 2nd Best Performing Public Service Unit (PSU) Team B within the competitive MDAs category.

SERVICOM Framework Drives Public Service Reforms

SERVICOM, established to enhance service quality across Nigerian public institutions, assesses MDAs based on rigorous standards that ensure responsiveness to public needs.

NITDA’s triple honours reflect its strategic focus on leveraging technology to streamline services, foster accountability, and promote inclusive digital governance.

The awards align with broader federal efforts to reposition public service delivery amid Nigeria’s push for digital economy growth.

NITDA’s Digital Leadership Under Spotlight
Since its establishment, NITDA has spearheaded national ICT policies, infrastructure development, and capacity building, positioning Nigeria as an emerging digital hub.

The agency’s SERVICOM success underscores effective implementation of the National Digital Economy Policy and Strategy (2020-2030), enhancing e-government services and citizen engagement.

Kashifu Inuwa Abdullahi’s leadership has been pivotal in initiatives like the National Centre for Artificial Intelligence and Robotics, alongside partnerships driving broadband expansion and cybersecurity.

These recognitions come amid NITDA’s ongoing campaigns for data localisation, digital skills training, and startup ecosystem support.

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FCCPC Forces Ikeja Electric Into Compliance, Unseals Headquarters After Rights Breach

Published

18 hours ago

December 22, 2025

Ugo Onwuaso

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Federal Competition and Consumer Protection Commission (FCCPC) has secured enforceable compliance from Ikeja Electric Plc, leading to the unsealing of the electricity distributor’s headquarters after regulatory intervention over consumer rights violations.

Ikeja Electric

The Commission had sealed the company’s headquarters on December 11, 2025, following its failure to comply with a directive of the Nigerian Electricity Regulatory Commission (NERC) to unbundle a Maximum Demand account into 20 individual accounts for a customer who had remained without electricity for more than two and a half years.

Following the enforcement action, Ikeja Electric entered into a binding undertaking with the FCCPC, committing to resolve all consumer complaints referred to it by the Commission within agreed timelines.

The FCCPC warned that any breach of the undertaking would trigger renewed and escalated enforcement under the Federal Competition and Consumer Protection Act (FCCPA).

The Executive Vice Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of the FCCPC, Mr. Tunji Bello, said the intervention underscores the Commission’s resolve to protect consumers and enforce regulatory decisions.

“Our responsibility is to ensure that consumers are treated fairly and that service providers comply with lawful decisions and directives. Enforcement is not an end in itself. Where compliance is achieved and credible commitments are made, the Commission will respond appropriately,” Bello said.

He added that the resolution reflects a firm but balanced regulatory approach.

“We intervene decisively where consumer harm persists, and we de-escalate where enforceable compliance is secured. What remains constant is our duty to protect consumers and uphold regulatory accountability,” he said.

The FCCPC said the outcome sends a clear signal that consumer rights violations will attract decisive regulatory action, while companies that demonstrate genuine compliance will receive proportionate responses.

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