Opeyemi Adekunle, who is the Managing Director/Chief Executive Officer of O’Bounce Technologies was honoured by Microsoft alongside 24 other entrepreneurs in 2017 for advancing extraordinary ideas to create positive change in Nigeria.
In this interview with IFEDAYO OGUNYEMI from Nigeria Tribune, he bares his mind on the effect of the COVID-19 pandemic on the technology industry, his entrepreneurship journey, and other issues.
He spoke about how he fell in love with computing and launch out in the year 2013,how he kick started with blogging on articles including how people can easily fix issues on their phones. From there, he started doing projects including building websites for clients and it was then that he got the name O’Bounce Technologies incorporated.
He explained how they lauched out their own startup which helps in building websites, mobile applications, handling social media, digital marketing, email marketing and server management among others.
The also spoke about some of the project they have successfully launched as a tech-based organization.
One of their project TryJAMBCBT. The story behind this is quite interesting.He narrate and I quote
I was about leaving school when a friend asked me to create JAMB CBT software. I felt I was too young to do it. I eventually built it and deployed the software at a school here in Ibadan. The students there fell in love with it. After the end of the session’s examination in 2014, the school reached out to us, saying they recorded an increase in the number of students who passed the examination because we created a simulation for them with the TryJAMBCBT software. And they were able to understand how JAMB CBT works better with the simulation we created. From the school, we got referrals to other schools and several tutorial centres. By 2014, we got recommended to the Obafemi Awolowo University (OAU). They approved the software and deployed it on their two CBT centres. The centres had 500 systems each. We got a lot of other referrals from OAU and we even got awarded by Microsoft who visited Nigeria in 2017 to award 25 Nigerian businesses. It was through that event that I got to meet other tech enthusiasts who are doing well in the industry including TC Hub, Andela and others from outside Nigeria who showed us how tech business is done. The courses we underwent include investment, management and winning grants.
He also spoke about their 1app.ng. They built 1app as a mobile Application in April 2019. When they built the app then, it was called My VTU. Everybody wanted to pay for things online (e-commerce) including airtime, data, cable TV and we created My VTU to make it simpler for everyone to do on one app which was made public in May. By September, more than 2,000 people had registered on the app and they really loved it. By November 1, 2019, it was rebranded and relaunched as 1app.ng.
The application has gained attraction all over the place. Organisations connected their APIs with ours so as to make online payments seamless. Now, on 1app.ng, we can make flight reservations, pay for data, cable TV and other online business payments.
He spoke about the solution they built because of the COVID-19 pandemic where classes and learning have moved online, an online learning platform where we can make courses available for people everywhere. He said With Nedorx, users can have access to their training anywhere they are. It means an average Nigerian will have access to learning at any time without having to spend too much money on it.
He spoke with the hope that in the next five years, They will expand to five countries including South Africa, Ghana, the United States and the United Kingdom. They are deploying Nedorx to South Africa as an educational system for all Africans. And they really need this kind of product there and South Africa will be like the headquarters for Nedorx.
In expanding the payment platform, with 1app.ng, to the UK and the US, they want to create an avenue for Nigerian’s home and abroad to send money to each other easily.
In reference to the event of Covid 19 on the entire industries, He said they have been preaching technology to everybody to take their businesses, services and classes away from the four walls of the physical rooms to online.
