Ademola Aladekomo – NIGERIA’S ICT TOP10

Founder, CHAMS Group

Sir Ademola Aladekomo is the founder CHAMS Group, who led the company for 30 year as group managing director/CEO until he retired in 2015. He started the company as a privately owned business in 1985 and the first indigenous computer maintenance and engineering company in Nigeria.The company has evolved from computer and hardware maintenance to providing enterprise technology solutions in the identity management and transaction payments space to public and private sector institutions.

Over the years, the company has pioneered many new technologies and provided intelligent solutions to a wide range of public and private sector operational challenges. Aladekomoled the company to become a leading ICT solutions provider with pioneer status in smartcard technology. The company pioneered systems integration services, local area network andcard technologies in Nigeria.

Chams became the first home-grown company to be listed in the Guinness Book of Records for setting up the mega ChamsCitydigital mall in Abuja, Lagos and other cities. The Lagos centre, which has over 1,000 computers, is reputed to be the largest digital mall and cyber café in the world.

Aladekomogrew Chams from a one-man outfit to become the first computer technology company listed on the Nigerian Stock Exchange with six subsidiaries and investments in a few other companies. With hispassion and commitment to providing solutions that lead to the uplift of society, Aladekomoled the team that won the concession on Nigeria’sidentity management programme.

Chamshas consequently become Nigeria’s leading identity management and transaction payments systems solution provider. In the identity management space, the companyhas executed major identification and verification related projects for a number of institutions including INEC,NCC, NIMC andseveral state governments.

Aladekomosuccessfully set up the largest identity card personalisation plant in Abuja with the capacity to produce 1.75m cards a day. He also led the successful implementation of the bank verification number project for Nigerian banks – the first of its kind in the world. The BVN project is acknowledged to have contributed significantly towards improvedrisk asset management in banksby creating a central and standardized identity database with supporting infrastructure for customers in Nigeria.

A full range of the services of the group cover identity management, biometric solution platforms,business process outsourcing services,electronic and card payment systems,mobile payments, ATMsales and support and POS deployment and support.Chams, the parent company, focuses on the business of identity management whilecard technology and transaction payments segments are carried out through its subsidiaries.

The subsidiary companies were created as Aladekomo identified new opportunities in the Nigerian economy. They are his strategic steps to consolidate his company’s positions as the leading information and communications technology group in Nigeria.

One of the subsidiaries, ChamsSwitch focuses on electronic commerce and handles transactional and identification switching. It providesthe platform that supports about 1,000 ATMs the company has deployed in the country.Its nationwide ATMsroll out project is expected to cover all the 774 local government areas in the country.

ChamsAccess focuses on building infrastructures mainly access terminals and ATMs. It delivers a network of infrastructures with suites of enterprise solutions to serve companies, governments and individuals.

ChamsMobile operates in the mobile telephony sector and is positioned to deliver mobile payment solutions while building competences in manufacturing mobile phones locally. The company’s purpose is to deliver to the domestic market mobile phone handsets made with adapted features that meet the needs of the Nigerian environment.

The rest of the subsidiaries of ChamsareSupercard, Paymaster and Card Centre Limited. With the six subsidiaries, each specialising in key areas of the ICT sector, the group has made an impressive mark in the development of ICT sector in Nigeria.

Chamsis working with the National Information Technology Development Agency, towards the effective implementation of the millennium development framework for mobile internet and outsourcing solutions. The deployment of ATMs in the 774 local governments is part of the project package.

Ademola is acknowledged as the brain behind the success of the first national e-payment platform in Nigeria birthed by the Valucard project backed by a consortium of fivebanks. His purpose, as he remains a director of the company,isto make Chams a Nigerian ICT firm making its mark in the global community.