By Mary Ann Ogbu
Today, Nigeria’s technology scene is filled with fintech companies, digital payment platforms, startup founders and young entrepreneurs building businesses around technology. But long before the word fintech became part of everyday conversation, some Nigerian entrepreneurs were already using technology to solve local problems.
One of them is John Tanimola Obaro, the founder and Group Managing Director of SystemSpecs.
His story is not simply about building a successful technology company. It is also about what it means to recognise an opportunity before an industry becomes popular.
In 1992, Obaro left the banking sector after about a decade of experience and founded SystemSpecs, at a time when Nigeria’s technology industry was still developing. There were no large startup accelerators or the huge flow of venture capital that young technology companies can seek today.
Obaro had studied Mathematics and Computer Science at Ahmadu Bello University and later earned an MBA from the University of Lagos. His years in banking and technology exposed him to the possibilities of software and the challenges faced by financial institutions.
That experience eventually encouraged him to build something of his own.
SystemSpecs initially began as a software business and worked as a West African partner for Systems Union, supporting and selling its SunSystems accounting software. But Obaro and his team soon realised that there were areas where Nigerian businesses needed solutions that better reflected their own realities.
That realisation changed the direction of the company.
One of the challenges SystemSpecs identified was payroll and human-resource management.
Businesses had to deal with salaries, taxes, pensions, deductions and other employee-related processes. Rather than simply depending on imported software, the company began developing its own solutions.
Products such as SpecPay, SpecMan and SpecPen eventually contributed to what became HumanManager, SystemSpecs’ human-resource and payroll management solution.
The lesson was simple but significant: technology does not always begin with a revolutionary idea. Sometimes, it begins with noticing an ordinary problem and deciding to solve it better.
That principle would later become even more important.
Today, Remita is one of the most recognisable names in Nigeria’s digital payments space. But it did not begin as a plan to create a fashionable fintech brand.
Its roots were connected to the practical needs SystemSpecs had already encountered through its payroll and human-resource work. SystemSpecs developed Remita as a payment solution that could help organisations manage salaries and other payments across different banks, alongside related tax and pension processes.
Over time, the platform expanded beyond its original purpose.
Its importance grew significantly when it became involved in Nigeria’s Treasury Single Account programme, which brought digital payments and government revenue collection into a much larger national conversation.
The story is worth remembering because Remita’s growth did not happen overnight. It evolved from solving specific business problems into becoming part of a much larger digital-payment ecosystem.
Obaro’s journey also highlights how different entrepreneurship looked before Nigeria’s current startup boom.
Today, a young founder can find incubators, pitch competitions, online communities, investors and a growing ecosystem built around technology businesses.
When Obaro started SystemSpecs, much of that infrastructure did not exist.
According to accounts of the company’s early years, raising money to establish the business was itself a challenge. Obaro has spoken about raising funds through a training programme after finding it difficult to obtain traditional financing for the young company.
That early experience reflects an important side of entrepreneurship that is sometimes forgotten: before a business becomes successful, there is usually a period when the founder has to improvise, learn and find ways to keep the idea alive.
Perhaps one of the strongest lessons from Obaro’s story is the importance of understanding the environment in which a product will be used.
SystemSpecs did not simply build technology because technology was becoming popular. Its products developed around problems experienced by Nigerian organisations.
That local understanding became an advantage.
For today’s entrepreneurs, the lesson remains relevant. Nigeria has millions of people with problems that technology can help solve from financial services and education to agriculture, healthcare, transportation and small-business management.
The opportunity is not simply to copy what is working elsewhere. It is to ask: What problem exists here, and what can we build that genuinely works for the people here?
Obaro’s story also challenges the idea that successful entrepreneurship must begin with a large amount of money.
Capital matters, but it is not the only ingredient.
Understanding a problem, developing useful skills, listening to customers, building a capable team and remaining committed to improvement can determine whether an idea survives.
SystemSpecs’ early practice of recruiting and training young graduates is another part of the company’s story. Instead of waiting for a large pool of experienced software professionals, the company developed talent internally.
That is particularly relevant in Nigeria today, where young people are acquiring digital skills but often struggle to find meaningful opportunities to apply them.
John Obaro’s journey is ultimately bigger than one entrepreneur or one company.
It represents an earlier chapter of Nigeria’s technology story a period when building software locally required patience, experimentation and a willingness to operate without the advantages that today’s startup ecosystem provides.
Remita may be the name many Nigerians recognise today, but the bigger story began much earlier, with a decision to build solutions around problems that Nigerian businesses actually faced.
As Nigeria’s technology industry continues to grow, the next generation of entrepreneurs may have more tools, more investors and more global attention than their predecessors.
But the fundamental question remains the same:
What problem are you solving, and are you building something that people genuinely need?
Before fintech became a booming industry, John Obaro and others were already answering that question through the work they were doing.
Their stories remind us that sometimes, being ahead of your time simply means seeing a problem clearly and having the courage to start building before everyone else sees the opportunity.
