In this week’s edition of Africa’s Most Innovative Companies, Ventures Africa speaks to Johnson Dunmoye Chief Executive Officer of Websoft, a Nigerian company dedicated to providing web, mobile and enterprise solutions.
As undergraduates studying at the prestigious University of Ibadan, the Websoft founders began to play with the idea of setting up a cybercafé, but lacked the funding in order to launch a full-scale business. This changed when an NGO outsourced the design of their website to the new company, providing the founders with sufficient capital to get Websoft off the ground – the web-solutions company was born.
From the outset, the Websoft founders were conscious of the important role technology plays in the African business arena, fuelling their desire to facilitate tech solutions to business problems.
“Technology brings efficiency, cost reduction, and provides the tools to do more with less which directly impacts the bottom line of businesses,” notes Dunmoye on the impact of technology in a business context, adding: “Technology is particularly important in Africa where lots of businesses run with few personnel, inadequate funding and little or no infrastructure.”
The innovative technology company has branched out with a number of successful products which have caused Websoft to achieve a yearly turnover growth of 100 percent since its inception.
Among these unique products are the Vantium tablet PC with telephone and PC functionality, a unified payment system, an easy to use website builder, which simplifies website creation into a single form to be filled out, and in a quirky innovation, a pioneering online wedding creation and management tool.
Building Websoft to the position it enjoys today has not been easy, with the company having overcome numerous challenges in its development to date. Dunmoye describes some of the most common obstacles, listing the main challenges as: “lack of top class personnel, trust because of fraud, people are comfortable doing things the old way, funding.”
However, the hard work is not over for the Websoft team, which promises many more innovative products will hit the African market over the coming years, including a Vantium-based educational solution.
The Websoft CEO does however have some important advice for budding entrepreneurs hoping to launch a business in the technology sector.
“Life does not start after school, make sure you start something when you are in school. Do not wait for everything to be perfect before you start, no matter how little, just start,” says Dunmoye, adding: “Don’t expect instant success!”
On an imperative practical financial note, he adds: “Never see the company’s money as yours, pay yourself a monthly allowance that you are sure your company can pay even during bad times and survive on it.”
However, perhaps the most important Websoft message relates to determination.
“Keep working and looking for a product or service that if it works will give you a good, constant flow of income,” Dunmoye says, although this comes with a warning: “Choosing to be an entrepreneur, is choosing to close all exit options, die trying, no going back!”
