In addition to being the founder and Group Managing Director of SystemSpecs Limited, Mr John Obaro is a fellow of the Chartered Institute of Bankers of Nigeria; a fellow of the Center for African Policy Development and Research, Glasgow, Scotland; a fellow of Nigeria Computer Society (NCS); an ex-member of the Governing Council of Computers Professionals (Registration Council) of Nigeria (CPN) – the highest industry practice regulatory body; and a fellow and past 1st Vice President of the Institute of Software Practitioners of Nigeria (ISPON). John Obaro was recognised with the honour of Leadership in Technology at the 2016 African Achievement Awards in Scotland and also recognised as the ICT Software Personality of the Year 2016 at the Beacon of ICT (BoICT) Award, in addition to other numerous indigenous and international awards he has received over the years.
Having enjoyed a successful career with International Merchant Bank (IMB), John Obaro founded SystemSpecs some 30 years ago as a West African Partner to Systems Union, UK, offering the SunSystems suite of solutions.
The company soon started developing its own proprietary payroll and human resource management solution, HumanManager, which has become the preferred choice for many leading public and private sector organisations in Nigeria and West Africa.
In the last decade, SystemSpecs has become a leader in the Nigerian e-payment space with its Remita solution, which enables efficient and easy payment and collection of funds for individuals and corporate organisations (both public and private) on a SINGLE inter-bank platform. Remita, as a payment gateway, pioneered the Federal Government’s Treasury Single Account (TSA) project for the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) and processes about $6 Billion worth of transactions on a monthly basis.
As part of its plans to impact and contribute to the growth of the financial services industry, SystemSpecs has had several notable partnerships with banks for services including payroll white-labelling, data referencing and payday loan.
John Obaro is a distinguished alumnus of both Ahmadu Bello University, University of Lagos, and the Chief Executive Program (CEP3) of Lagos Business School. He has served at various times on the Boards of the Ministerial Advisory Council on Information and Communication Technology, Institute of Software Practitioners of Nigeria, Computer Professionals Registration Council of Nigeria (CPN), Governing Council of the National ICT Incubation Program (iDea), and many more.
He is passionate about the promotion of Nigeria’s indigenous software industry as a capable and comparable rival to anywhere in the world. John Obaro is known in many circles as ‘The Consummate Innovator’. He is a trailblazer on many fronts, and indeed his footprint is evident across many sectors of the Nigerian economy.