Being a successful entrepreneur comes when one is truthful, passionate, has the can-do spirit, dreams big, acquires the necessary knowledge and grabs every opportunity.
That’s the story of Kojo Dougan, founder of BSS Technologies and partner of Interpay. A man of Economics background, who couldn’t complete his University years due to circumstances, is now a maestro in the IT sector because he saw the opportunity and seized it.
He sees every encounter as a golden chance to explore and get the best out of it.
With his can-do spirit, Dougan at age 25 was already landing local and international contracts including AngloGold Ashanti for his company, BSS TECHNOLOGIES. A company he built from scratch as a department from his father’s company, Business Support Systems in 1999.
It all started when he accompanied his father; (whom he honours as among the first Ghanaians to qualify as a Fellow of the Chartered Institute of Bankers UK, a member of the prestigious Institute of Financial Services UK and the driving force behind the origin and opening of Rural banks in Ghana); to meet some foreign business acquaintances who were in Ghana for business deal with Anglogold Ashanti and he got involved in the contract.
This however led to his involvement with a company from South Africa called CONTROL SOFT. An IT firm that deals in access system, cards, access control, attendance for organizations.
After the company’s initial contract, Kojo realized something “so if there is a problem they have to call these guys all the way from South Africa?”
“Honestly that’s where I took it from; I saw an opportunity to do this”
Although he has always been interested in information technology, he took it up academically to capitalize on that golden opportunity
“I took courses in C++, Linux, and MySQL with NIIT. After I graduated, I contacted the South African guys that I want to know about their system and if they were willing to train me”
Their responses confirmed that the course he offered at NIIT has not been a waste of time and money.
“They were even looking for a local partner here (Ghana), because it was difficult for them to fly back and forth to Ghana. They preferred a local partner in Ghana who would do sales and support.”
“So the MD of the company actually came to Ghana and gave me training on their systems” he said with pride
As keen as he was to make the best of that chance, he never wasted time marketing the products.
The products were access systems, cards, access solutions software and attendance for organizations.
Kojo confessed business hasn’t been that easy. He faced a lot of challenges since he was inexperienced with little capital.
Though he had some support from his father financially and had some savings that was not enough to cater for import duties and others expenses.
“I remember my first contract; I didn’t have funds so I went to a bank that I have pulled this contract, I want to supply, would they help me with a loan. The credit officer said no; because I don’t have any track records.”
The “no” from the credit officer couldn’t suppress his dreams since he was very determined to do it. He thought of a different approach of getting his supplies even without the needed amount.
“So I told my clients that I don’t have the funds, are they going to pay 60% advance to be able to mobilize the money to get the products and they will pay the balance 30 days after completion of work for them to know that I have done a good work”
“And the South Africa firm, I asked them, could you give me a line of credit”.
Surprisingly, both parties agreed to his proposal with dealers discount from the South African counterpart.
Following the surprising deal which he described as God’s favour, he knew exactly what do to stay in business- faithfulness
“Because I am building a business, I don’t look at today. I am looking at tomorrow, how do I make these guys to trust me? I need to make sure I settle the debt.
“Business is about establishing a relationship and keeping them”
Today BSS Technologies he started single handedly 18 years ago, has 10 employees with multinational clients.
Though it still does cards personalization, the company is more into access system, bar code, loyalty systems, chip cards, bank cards, proximity, data base management, membership management system, visitors management systems and CCTV Systems.
He said his Economics and Banking background and Executive short course in Strategy he offered at Ashesi University had played a very good role in managing his business.
Kojo never stops dreaming. He tells Business World “Every business man wants to grow, no matter where the person started. Even if you take those selling ice water, they will start with selling a few bags, the next thing they want is to have a fridge; and maybe the next thing to produce ice block. The realization may be different but the mental picture is there”
Dealing in cards for some years “I got interested in some of the back end not just printing the card. To learn about the whole cycle of the cards ecosystem, I got interested in the payment aspect of cards. To make payment processing easier”
With a brilliant idea but inadequate knowledge in that field, he needed a perfect partner who shared the same dream since his first contact wasn’t helpful.
“Everybody you meet in life helps you learn something, some are good, and some are bad. Some people are not destiny helpers, some are dream killers, and some people help you to move to the next level in life.’’
His dream of making payment easier never died. He kept trying alone until he met Saqib Nazir (CEO of Interpay) a classmate from Ghana International School whose ideas complemented his perfectly.
“He has done payments and was looking for cards and I was into cards looking for the next step in payment”
“I was keen to do it, he was keen to have me on board because he also had the vision beyond Ghana likewise me.”
These men with ideas and expertise that supplement each other, teamed up and a new company of making payment easier, convenient and flexible named Interpay was born in 2013.
It is an electronic payment platform that facilitates traditional transaction and e-commerce in the country.
It currently does more of business-to-business (B2B) transaction nationwide in partnership with 17 banks in Ghana.
Barely two years in operation and Interpay is making waves with more than 80,000 users.
The company aims at improving its capacity to host more services not just in Ghana but worldwide.
“We want to become an international brand in 5 years”
Kojo’s years of hardwork was acknowledged as he was voted the president of the Ghana South Africa Business chamber in 2013 after being an ordinary and executive member for some years.
Under his leadership, the chamber addressed some trading challenges that existed between the two countries.
“The chamber was quite instrumental in the establishment of MOU between Ghana Standard Authority and South African Board of Standards.”
Now traders with export certificates from Ghana Standard Authority can export to South Africa without barriers and vice versa
Moreover, the Chamber has helped formed business linkages and partnerships between Ghana and South Africa and ensured a less stressful visa processing for business persons.
He summarized all up by saying “the relationship between South Africa and Ghana has improved greatly”
He has been a Director of Rotary after being a member of the global charitable organization for some time. Also he is a Faculty Member and Mentor of the Junior Boys Mentoring Conference, a ministry to help ‘’raise boys to Men’’
To give back to society, Kojo founded and doubles as the Director of The Wilhelmina Augustina Dougan Foundation, an orphans focused non-profit entity.
Kojo Dougan is a family man. He is married with a son and enjoys spending quality time with his beautiful family.
“In the mornings, I don’t pick up calls before 8oclock because I am spending time with my wife and son.” he says.
Although he loves to swim and listen to music in his leisure time, he enjoys reading published books and journals the most.
Kojo believes making it in life is to “look for opportunities, because opportunities don’t come with an advert, and seek direction and discernment from God”
In 5 years, he vows Interpay would be a global brand, proudly chanting the slogan, “Interpay is the future of payments. Join us!”
By dent of hard work, Interpay was recently awarded $1 million MasterCard Foundation to launch a new free-to-use mobile finance application that will help ISM users in peri-urban and rural areas to save their money. The award will also be invested in finalizing modifications to the Maximus platform which is estimated to benefit at least 40,000 underserved ISM users.