The tech boom isn’t creating opportunities just for smart people in the advanced world; enterprising individuals in emerging economies, with the penchant for providing solutions to their countries’ numerous developmental challenges, are carving niches for themselves and, in the process, raising their personal net worth way above the average.
Erasmus Mensah Ackon’s story fits perfectly in that mold. A decade and a half ago, he was a statistic among the half-baked unemployed youth in Ghana, clambering for their first lucky break at being gainfully employed. Now, several years down the line, Erasmus runs two organisations; the one, a fast growing business that provides IT solutions in the financial services industry and the other, a not-for-profit organisation that is focused on providing free and competency based IT training to children and young people.
The latter, IT4Teens, which he founded with the assistance of Miss Marian Ewurama Wiredu, is what has attracted much public attention to Erasmus. It has three IT training centres, two in the Western Region and one in the Central Region of Ghana. IT4Teens is funded and supported by Tigo-Reach for Change. Since its launch, in May 2013, iT4Teens has provided quality education to over 4,000 young people from the ages of eight and above.
IT4Teens undoubtedly is earning Erasmus much recognition, but the money churner is his Smart Information Systems, an IT company specialized in development of Business Applications, which currently provides one of the most competitive microfinance management software in the country, called SikaSoft and is now being used by over 40 microfinance institutions.
His venture into the IT world, Erasmus recounts, was prompted by a combination of desperation and determination; not to be a victim of the systemic marginalization that’s so prevalent in his generation.
“It all started in the year 2000, when I failed to get employment from a reputable insurance company in Ghana because I wasn’t computer literate. It was the same with my second job interview, but I was third time lucky when I gained employment as an account trainee,” Erasmus disclosed, noting that, indeed that was his lucky break since it gave him the opportunity to use the computer for the first time.
Having had his first formal computer training on the job in 2001, he subsequently moved on to work in another institution as an account officer, where he was able to implement book keeping using Microsoft excel.
“I was able to format my excel work sheet to the satisfaction of my superiors and based on their recommendations I kept developing more interest in working with computers,” Erasmus recollects his early experiences with glee.
In 2003, he had a better job offering as a cashier with a bank and, this time around, it was as a result of his experience in working on computers.
Motivated by the transformation computer literacy has brought to bear on his fortunes, Erasmus was spurred on to further develop his knowledge and skills in his newly acquired interest by making use of the internet that was available at the work place.
“I remember I once looked at the software we were using at the bank and told myself ‘wow I can develop this software’.”
“My interest took me to searching online on how to develop software and I started practicing coding,” he recollects.
Not satisfied with his performance, and with his improved earnings, he was able to hire a personal instructor who taught him coding after work every day. The passion to develop software was so great and by 2007, Erasmus had gained a lot of experience and had developed three business applications.
“I had other applications developed for friends to use and based on their feedback was able to perfect them. Recommendations from friends and co-workers attracted individuals around to rely on me for their software solutions,” he recalls.
While still at the bank, he had an opportunity to develop financial reporting software for a district assembly in the Western Region, which was recommended to other district assemblies and he ended up with four district assemblies as his clients.
Enticed by this new prospect, coupled with his passion for developing business applications, Erasmus’ entrepreneurial instincts got the better of him and he took the ultimate risk; he left his job with the bank as an operations officer in 2009 and registered a private business together with a friend with a 50-50 shareholding. And as with most start-ups, they got carried away by their desire for the big break.
“We had a mega business opportunity to develop an M and E tool for the National Health Insurance Authority which was supposed to be a World Bank sponsored project that was to make us an amount of over $300,000.00. The project was abandoned along the line and we were confronted with the daunting challenge of paying back a bank loan we had contracted for the execution of the project.
“Since I had paid the rent for the office we operated from, my partner who came on board with no equity and therefore nothing to lose, took the obvious step of instructing his lawyers to write to me officially that he’s no more part of the company,” Erasmus discloses.
Of course he felt betrayed but was undaunted; “since the entire business was my initiative. I single handedly worked to pay the bank loan, by developing software solutions for small and medium scale enterprises,” Erasmus reveals.
Now, having gone through the mill and coming out successfully, Erasmus is looking at replicating his story.
“My long-term goal is to provide a co-working environment for young tech entrepreneurs to achieve their dreams,” he says.
His work with the IT4Teens, established to give comprehensive ICT training to children and the youth in deprived communities for free, provides him the perfect environment to reproduce after his kind.